Where PERMA-Lead comes from
Positive psychology studies what makes people and organizations flourish. One of its best-known frameworks is PERMA, which describes five building blocks of wellbeing: Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment. The organizational psychologist Dr. Markus Ebner (University of Vienna) turned these building blocks into a leadership model: PERMA-Lead. It describes what leaders do to make sure their people experience enough of each factor at work, and it can be measured, trained and tracked over time.
More on the original model, its measurement tools and the people behind it: perma-lead.com ↗
Think of the leader as a good gardener: not over-fertilizing once and walking away, but making sure people regularly get enough of all five nutrients.
The five levers, translated into police work
Positive emotions
Leaders actively create moments of appreciation, humor and a good atmosphere. On duty: a supervisor who starts the shift with a genuine check-in sets a different tone than one who starts with the latest complaint. And a smiling officer changes the mood of a crowd and breaks negative stereotypes.
Engagement through strengths
Leaders know what their people are good at and, more importantly, what energizes them, and deploy them accordingly. On duty: officers who love tactical communication are trained well and then allowed to lead the dialogue.
Relationships and psychological safety
Trust, learning from mistakes, everyone welcome as they are. On duty: a team that can raise concerns before an operation makes fewer errors during it; honest relationships with organizers make assemblies safer for everyone.
Meaning
Leaders explain the why behind tasks, decisions and change. On duty: explaining what the police will do, and why, before and after an operation, both to officers and to the public.
Accomplishment
Police work never ends, which makes it easy to lose sight of what has been achieved. Leaders make progress visible. On duty: a debrief that names what went well and recognizes the women and men of the match.
What the evidence says
Teams with positive leadership are measurably more satisfied, healthier and more open to change. In policing, the largest study so far surveyed 3,329 employees of the Hesse Police in Germany (Rübsamen & Bürger, Die Polizei). Positive leadership strengthened two psychological resources, wellbeing at work and individual resilience, and through them increased employees' general readiness for change. In 2024, the Hesse Police introduced PERMA-Lead to the heads of all its police headquarters.
The approach has also drawn international attention: the Greater Good Magazine of UC Berkeley featured positive leadership in policing in 2026, and we presented it together with Markus Ebner at the European Conference on Positive Psychology in Dublin.
Is this too soft for policing?
“The scientific basis for the importance of positivity gives it an important credibility. Not being positive for the sake of avoiding negativity (which can end up being toxic positivity).”Course participant, Austin Police Department
No. Positive leadership does not replace clear command in critical situations; it complements it. Less burnout, lower turnover and more trust inside and outside the organization are what keep a police force capable of acting. That is not only the ethical choice. It is the strategic one.
How agencies start
- Measure: PERMA-Lead profiles show leaders where they stand on each of the five levers, from their own view and their team's.
- Train: a keynote for command staff or a hands-on workshop for supervisors.
- Embed: a leadership development program that repeats the measurement and makes progress visible.