Municipal Leaders: Develop Faster, Lead Stronger, Build Better
Every week, you’ll get insights and actionable steps to help you navigate personal growth and professional success.
As a city manager, you’re walking a tightrope every day. On one side, the demanding responsibilities of running a city efficiently. On the other, your personal life and well-being. It’s a delicate balancing act, one that often feels like you’re performing without a safety net.
In our previous post, we explored the power of saying ‘no’ and how it can revolutionize your leadership as a city manager. Today, we’re diving deeper into the concept of Essentialism by focusing on a critical question: What is your highest point of contribution?
As city managers, you’re tasked with overseeing numerous departments, projects, and initiatives. It’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to be everywhere and do everything. However, true leadership isn’t about being all things to all people. It’s about identifying where you can make the most significant impact and focusing your energy there.
Welcome to the fourth episode of our podcast series, “The Municipal Tightrope: Taming the Three-Headed Snake.” In this installment, we shift our focus to an often-overlooked aspect of city management: the personal challenges and sacrifices faced by those who dedicate their lives to public service.
As city managers, you’re all too familiar with the constant juggling act that comes with your unique role. Multiple projects, endless meetings, and the relentless pressure to meet diverse community needs can leave you feeling overwhelmed and stretched thin. But what if there was a way to not just manage this chaos, but to thrive amidst it? Enter the concept of Essentialism, as popularized by Greg McKeown in his book “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.”
Hello, visionary leaders!
Welcome to the first edition of “The Leader’s Lens!” We’ve updated the name of our weekly newsletter, but our commitment to helping you navigate personal growth and professional success as a leader continues and aims to be even better.
In this week’s Leader’s Lens:
Let’s sharpen our focus and expand our horizons together.
Welcome to the third episode of our podcast series, “The Municipal Tightrope: Taming the Three-Headed Snake.” After exploring the challenges faced by city managers, we now turn our attention to the strategies and approaches that successful municipal leaders use to overcome these obstacles.
Over the past week, we’ve delved deep into Brené Brown’s “Dare to Lead,” exploring how its four key skills apply to the challenging world of city management. As we wrap up this series, let’s bring these threads together and envision what truly daring leadership can look like in our municipalities.
Let’s recap the four crucial skills we’ve explored:
We’ve journeyed through vulnerability, values, and trust in our exploration of Brené Brown’s “Dare to Lead.” Today, we tackle the final crucial skill: Learning to Rise. The ability to bounce back from setbacks is the crescendo that brings the entire symphony of leadership together…and as someone who’s tasted the dirt at the bottom of the valley, I’m rooting for your bouncebacks to be far higher than you can even imagine.
Brown describes ‘Learning to Rise’ as the ability to get back up after a fall, face hurt in a way that brings more wisdom, and reset faster after disappointments. For city managers, this skill is not just beneficial—it’s essential. In the unpredictable and often harsh world of municipal leadership, setbacks are not a possibility; they’re a certainty.
For a city manager, learning to rise might look like:
Welcome back to our podcast series, “The Municipal Tightrope: Taming the Three-Headed Snake.” In this second installment, we dive deeper into the challenges that make city management one of the most demanding jobs in public service.
Building on our introduction to city managers, this episode explores the obstacles and dilemmas that these municipal leaders face daily. Drawing from our extensive interviews with nearly 50 city managers across the United States, we uncover the real-world challenges of running a city.
In our journey through Brené Brown’s “Dare to Lead,” we’ve explored vulnerability and living into our values. Today, we tackle the third crucial skill: Braving Trust. From the lens of my experience as a leader and executive coach, I’ve observed trust functioning as the fulcrum upon which the entire balance of effective city management teeters.
Brown defines trust as “choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of someone else.” As a city manager, trust is the invisible thread that weaves together your team, your relationship with elected officials, and your connection with the community. It’s not just about being reliable; it’s about creating an environment where risks can be taken, difficult conversations can be had, and innovation can flourish.
For a city manager, braving trust might look like:
