Introducing: The Municipal Leadership Development Circle (MLDC) - Save 50% During Launch Phase
Every week, you’ll get insights and actionable steps to help you navigate personal growth and professional success.
In August 2024, I had individual conversations with nearly 50 city managers across the United States, from communities of 1,500 to cities of over a million. One question consistently stopped them in their tracks: “How are you doing personally?”
The uncomfortable silence that followed spoke volumes.
Dear Fellow Servant Leader,
I’ve sat in a similar chair to the one you sit in. I’ve felt the weight of responsibility that doesn’t clock out at 5 PM. I’ve missed family dinners for emergency meetings, checked emails during my child’s recital, and sacrificed countless personal moments on the altar of service. I know what it means to make life “hard on me and easy on everyone else.” And I’ve learned – sometimes the hard way – that this path isn’t sustainable.
Hello, Impactful City Leaders!
This week, I’ve smiled broader than the Cheshire cat while seeing so many posts from city managers and administrators sharing their community’s holiday celebrations. From Christmas tree lightings to community parades, these events showcase more than just seasonal spirit – they demonstrate the unique magic that happens when municipal leaders and their teams pour their talents into creating memorable moments for their communities. The joy on employees’ faces as they serve their neighbors reminds us why we chose public service in the first place.
This week, we’ve explored powerful tools for saying “no” while preserving relationships. But what does this actually look like in real municipal leadership? Let’s examine how three city managers have transformed their effectiveness by implementing these principles, and how you can do the same.
Picture an orchestra where each musician plays their own preferred tempo. Even with world-class talent, the result would be chaos. The same principle applies to your municipality – excellence requires more than individual capability. It demands organizational alignment.
Yet in my work with cities across the country, I consistently see a troubling pattern: departments operating in isolation, competing priorities creating confusion, and talented teams pulling in different directions. The result? Fragmented efforts that fall short of their potential.
Imagine: A developer is pressuring you to fast-track their project. Council members are echoing their urgency. Your planning department is already overwhelmed. You feel backed into a corner, but what if you had a secret weapon – a way to negotiate from strength rather than desperation?
In our latest episode of The HaltingWinter Podcast, we sit down with Mike Land, City Manager of Coppell, Texas and ICMA President-Elect, for a fascinating conversation about intentional culture-building in municipal government.
Mike’s journey from delivering bread in Houston with his father to leading one of Texas’s most culturally innovative cities offers powerful insights for every municipal leader. “Culture is either by chance or by choice,” Mike explains. “And I would say throughout our organization, we believe in and work towards culture by choice.”
It’s budget season. Department heads are fighting for resources, council members are pushing pet projects, and community groups are demanding increased services – all while your finance director insists on maintaining healthy reserves. Some days, it feels less like city management and more like referee duty at a championship wrestling match.
Welcome to what I call the “municipal pressure cooker,” where competing interests collide and conflict seems inevitable. But what if conflict wasn’t the enemy? What if it was actually your gateway to stronger relationships and better solutions?
Picture your city hall transformed. Not just a better version of what it is today, but a beacon of municipal excellence that other cities aspire to emulate. A place where innovation flourishes, where employees are genuinely excited to come to work, and where your community sees tangible results from well-executed initiatives.
This isn’t just a pleasant daydream – it’s an achievable reality. But like any significant transformation, it requires a solid foundation. Today, we’re diving into the architecture of municipal excellence and how to build it systematically in your organization.
Your parks director just proposed an ambitious new project. It’s innovative, community-focused, and completely impossible with your current budget constraints. You know you need to say no, but you also need to maintain the enthusiasm and creativity that sparked the idea. What do you do?
Enter the Yes-No-Yes formula, a revolutionary approach from William Ury’s “The Power of a Positive No” that transforms how we handle these delicate situations. Let’s break down how this framework can revolutionize your municipal leadership.
