Leadership Development Program

The Leadership Development Program is designed to enhance the quality, consistency and continuity of leadership within the Maine Department of Corrections. This is accomplished through the delivery of a coordinated, high quality program focused on increasing the professional and leadership skills of participants to further the Department’s mission.

The program will prepare current supervisors, managers and future leaders to lead with foresight by:
  • Promoting the principles of evidence based practices to improve outcomes of the department.
  • Assisting participants to build a positive collaborative organization through effective communication and interpersonal skills.
  • Motivating staff through purposeful learning, resulting in a higher level of satisfaction and rate of retention.

The structure of the program is based on three major components; Tier 1 - individual leadership development, Tier 2 – specific skill development, and Tier 3 – leadership projects. A desired outcome is to achieve systems improvement through the implementation of best practice, effective communication, and positive relationships.

Tier 1

The first tier of the Maine Department of Corrections Leadership Development Program consists of a two-day introduction and seven (7) separate modules [referred to as the Core Learning Curriculum].

Staff participation from all areas of the department is encouraged. Following is a brief description of the Introduction and the 7 modules.

INTRODUCTION

 

Day 1 Includes:
  • Introduction to Leadership – Commissioner's presentation – and Levels of Leadership
    Participants will understand Jim Collin’s 5 levels of leadership model enabling them to appropriately name the leadership levels reflected in the commissioner’s presentation.
  • Leadership Behavior Inventory
    Participants will identify their leadership styles, compare and contrast the various styles, and synthesize the information learned into useable action steps.
  • Situational Leadership
    Participants will learn about the Situational Leadership model and consider its applicability to current job situations. Participants practice leadership strategies using the situational considerations as applied in their own context.
  • Communication – The Leadership Imperative
    Participants will learn/review how leaders communicate in a variety of situations, apply the Situational Leadership model to scenes from video clips, and self assess.
Day 2 Includes:
  • Witness – Observation 1
    Participants will learn how to capture the knowledge of the audience prior to intensive team training.
  • Four Corners
    Participants will gain an understanding of how people individually perceive and respond to their surroundings, and the impact of those individual perceptions and responses in a group/team setting. Carl Jung’s philosophies will be studied.
  • Communications
    Participants will discover the elements of the communication cycle, and its practical application.
  • Effective Teams
    Participants will identify and define the elements of effective teams by reviewing and analyzing their own experiences.
  • Team Basics
    Participants will review the meaning of teamwork, identify the skills involved, and practice teamwork through active participation.
  • Team Problem Solving
    Participants will be engaged in a simulation that requires team planning and interpersonal skills to reach an effective solution to an unusual problem utilizing the Cascades Survival situation.
  • Team Development
    Participants will be introduced to the stages of team development.
  • Planning for Application
    The purpose of this final component is to reflect on the work of the first two days and to identify personal action to be taken.

CORE LEARNING CURRICULUM

MODULE 1 - Ethics
After gaining some information about ways to resolve ethical dilemmas, participants will process several dilemmas presented in the form of scenarios. This will allow participants to practice solving difficult situations in a safe setting. Participants will also have the opportunity to apply the decision making strategies to ethical dilemmas they face in their own work.

MODULE 2 – Organizational Culture
Participants will gain an understanding of organizational culture, climate and the relationship between them, as well as explore organizational systems and the strengths and weaknesses of organizational cultures.

MODULE 3 – Organizational Change
Participants will explore change through personal experience, gain an understanding of the features of the change process, examine a framework for leading organizational change and design a draft change plan.

MODULE 4 – Communication
After gaining information about effective communication, participants will identify their own and other’s communication styles, and be able to apply strategies to overcome barriers to effective communication and communicate in ways that enhance group communication and performance.

MODULE 5 – Conflict Management
This module will increase the participants’ awareness of the beliefs they hold about conflict, and the choices they make in conflict situations. The participants will gain an increased capacity to modify the choices made in conflict situations by assessing and exploring effective response options.

MODULE 6 – Coaching & Motivation
Participants will become familiar with coaching & motivation techniques and their application to work and other responsibilities.

MODULE 7 – Collaborative Decision Making
Participants will gain an understanding of collaborative decision-making as it applies to their work internally at DOC and externally with other constituents. Individual collaborative styles will be revealed. The importance of collaboration will be discussed and reviewed and related to the Maine Department of Corrections Guiding Principles. Participants will have the opportunity to practice levels of collaborative decision-making and apply the strategies they have learned to specific situations.

Tier 2

The second tier of the Maine Department of Corrections Leadership Development Program includes management level modules designed to meet specific departmental needs.

The first two Tier 2 modules include:
  1. Strategies for Supervisors; and
  2. Holding Effective Meetings.

Staff members wishing to enroll in the Effective Meetings module must have a role that requires them to plan and facilitate meetings. In order to participate in the two-day supervisory training, staff must be actively supervising others.

Tier 3

The third tier of the Maine Department of Corrections Leadership Development Program focuses on applying the principles and skills of Tiers 1 and 2 to a specific Department initiative.

In Tier 3, Department project teams will use the framework for collaborative action and problem solving learned in Tiers 1 and 2 to tackle a specific departmental objective.

The Tier 3 process follows a six step process, which includes:
  1. Initial Planning and Design; and
  2. Problem Articulation; and
  3. Establishing a Vision or Image of Success; and
  4. Identification of Potential Solutions; and
  5. Implementation and Evaluation; and
  6. Reporting on Outcomes.

Four projects were started in the summer of 2010. They are:

Maine State Prison Recycling Project
(contact: Pete Warman, MSP)
Girls’ Case Management Pilot Project
(contact: Amanda Woolford)
Maine Department of Corrections Library Coalition

(contact: Lisa Wojcik, Long Creek Youth Development Center)
Juvenile Facility Recidivism Project
(contact: Lawrence Austin, Mt. View Youth Development Center)

 

In This Section

DOC Adult Services FAQs