Local government leaders have typically risen through the ranks on technical expertise and experience in their own fields. Technical proficiency at the department head level is rarely the problem in local government, and it is where most training resources go. Leadership development for the higher levels of authority is easy to overlook while the focus stays on technical certification, credentials and annual updates.
Most staff, department heads included, put technical development first because being the technical expert feels like job security. Meanwhile many organizations carry an executive staff with a wide range of leadership ability and no short-term or long-term leadership development program.
Labelling leadership traits as “soft skills” is misguided, to say the least. Professionals with genuine leadership aptitude are valuable assets. They get the most out of their teams, they communicate well across departments and with elected officials and residents, and they give a city manager or county administrator a strong foundation for building a healthy organizational culture, one where employees have a safe space to operate and the authority to act.
Effective leadership is essential to the success of local government, and the need for leadership development at the department head level often goes unnoticed. The question worth asking inside any organization is a plain one: where does the leadership development for the people just below the top actually come from, and who owns it?
