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.
You hired someone with an impressive resume. Great credentials. Solid experience. Stellar references. All the technical skills your department needed.
Six months later, you’re dealing with frustrated staff, damaged relationships, and declining morale. Despite their qualifications, this person is making your team worse, not better.
This is the bleeding neck problem facing local government leaders across North America: we’ve gotten really good at hiring for competence, but we’ve forgotten to hire for character.
You hired good people. You know they’re capable. So why does your talented team seem disengaged during strategic planning but energized during crisis response?
Why do some council meetings leave you feeling drained while others fuel your enthusiasm for the work? Why does that department head who’s brilliant at operations struggle to build support for new initiatives?
Here’s the breakthrough: It’s not about competence. It’s about alignment.
Your last leadership team meeting ran two hours over schedule. Again. Despite having some of the most qualified department heads in the region, decisions still feel like negotiations. Staff can recite your mission statement but can’t explain how their daily work connects to it. And that customer service initiative you launched three months ago? Half your employees still default to the old way of doing things.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone—and you’re not failing.
Picture yourself in your weekly department head meeting. Your Public Works Director barely makes eye contact with your Community Development Director as they discuss an upcoming infrastructure project. Your Finance Director holds back crucial budget concerns to avoid conflict. Your HR Director has stopped bringing up staffing issues because previous attempts at discussion were shut down. These aren’t just minor annoyances – they’re symptoms of deeper team dynamics that could be undermining your city’s effectiveness.
