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Module 3 Assignment

Chief Laura Farinella reflected on her career leading the Laguna Beach Police Department. She utilized a participative leadership style, making it a priority to meet with employees regularly to solicit their feedback and ideas. This helped foster a sense of ownership within the department. Farinella kept an open mind to new ideas, implementing suggestions like the School Resource Officer program. She distinguished between managing things and leading people, emphasizing the importance of modeling good behavior and communication to inspire employees. Farinella's hallmark was thinking beyond problems to seize opportunities through reflection, collaboration, and enabling people.

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Module 3 Assignment

Chief Laura Farinella reflected on her career leading the Laguna Beach Police Department. She utilized a participative leadership style, making it a priority to meet with employees regularly to solicit their feedback and ideas. This helped foster a sense of ownership within the department. Farinella kept an open mind to new ideas, implementing suggestions like the School Resource Officer program. She distinguished between managing things and leading people, emphasizing the importance of modeling good behavior and communication to inspire employees. Farinella's hallmark was thinking beyond problems to seize opportunities through reflection, collaboration, and enabling people.

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Dylan Moore

University of San Diego

LEPSL 540: Organizational Leadership

Assignment 3.1: Analyzing a Leadership Example

May 26, 2021


Retired Chief Laura Farinella of the Laguna Beach Police Department in presentation 3.1

reflected on her career as the Chief of Police and the leadership style she brought to a medium

sized progressive law enforcement agency. Reflecting on her leadership style, she stated “We

always have to be open to new ideas and new ways of policing.”1 This method of leadership was

consistent throughout her tenure as Chief.

The first reflection from her leadership style is how she prescribed to the participative

management approach to leadership. Participatory leadership “encourages the involvement of

stakeholders at all levels of an organization in the analysis of problems, development of

strategies, and the implementation of solutions.”2 This style of leadership is what Chief Farinella

brought to Laguna Beach Police Department. Even with all of the demands her job brought her,

she made it an important note to sit down with every single one of her employees every two

years. She sat down with them in a one on one setting where they would feel comfortable in

sharing their experiences. This helped bolster the “sense of ownership in the company.”3 She

thought it was important to relinquish a bit of control, acknowledge she did not know everything,

and learn from the people who work for her and with her.

In addition to her meeting with every employee, she also kept an open mind and received

ideas from her officers well. This is imperative because leaders must “be open to new ideas and

alternatives in order for participative management to work.”4 She most definitely did not agree

with every idea or item that was brought to her attention, but she made it a point to implement

ideas she thought would benefit the organization as a whole. An example of this implementation

1
Chief Laura Farinella. Presentation 3.1: Leading and Managing a Progressive Police Agency. University of San
Diego. LEPSL 540 – Organizational Leadership.
2
McMillan, Amy. “Participative Management” Page 1.
3
Ibid. 2.
4
Ibid. 3.
was the creation of School Resource Officers (SRO’s) in her city. She said a corporal at the time

pitched the idea to her in her one on one meeting. She thought the idea was well thought out and

implemented the program, which still runs to this day. This is just one of many examples where

she capitalized on the strengths of the people who work for her.

Furthermore, the most distinct reflection from her reflections on her time as Chief of

Police was when she talked about the difference between management and leadership. She

stated, “I look at management as you manage things…and you lead your people.”5 She had a

strong ethic of leading the people who worked in her department. She was top notch at the

management side of law enforcement because she came from a large sized police agency who

she had worked at for over twenty years. What made her an excellent Chief however, was not

only her knowledge of how to manage, but her ability to lead. In her own words, “You do that by

getting out in front and modeling the behavior you want to see, talking about what your

expectations are and what that looks like.”6 In the Harvard Business Review author Vineet Nayar

writes “Leading by example and leading by enabling people are the hallmarks of action-based

leadership.”7

In conclusion, the hallmark of Retired Chief Laura Farinella was one of “thinking beyond

problems, having a vision, and inspiring people to convert challengers into opportunities.”8 She

not only modeled the participative management model for leadership, but understood the

necessity to not only be a good manager of her agency, but lead effectively from the front with

continual reflection and collaboration with her employees.

5
Presentation 3.1.
6
Ibid.
7
Nayar, Vineet. “Three Differences between Managers and Leaders.” Harvard Business Review. August 2, 2013.
Page 1.
8
Ibid.
Citations
Bans-Akutey, Anita. “The Path-Goal Theory of Leadership.” Academia Letters, Article 748.

2021

Chief Laura Farinella. Presentation 3.1: Leading and Managing a Progressive Police Agency.

University of San Diego. LEPSL 540 – Organizational Leadership.

McMillan, Amy. “Participative Management”

Nayar, Vineet. “Three Differences between Managers and Leaders.” Harvard Business Review.

August 2, 2013.

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