Providing a critical examination of government in American cities, this volume presents the innovative view that mayors in council-manager cities are better positioned to develop positive leadership than their peers in mayor-council cities. This book develops a deeper understanding of city government institutions with an examination of groundbreaking conceptual model of leadership and how it relates to local government forms. Based on the observation of mayors who have served in the past decade in cities ranging in size from 1500 to 1.5 million, fourteen case studies evaluate factors that contribute to effective leadership and highlight emerging issues faced by today‘s cities.

How will increasingly diverse cities and counties strengthen their political leadership for the 1990s and beyond? How can mayors and other officials become effective leaders in government structures that deny them executive power and diffuse their political leadership? What kind of leadership will this be and what impact will it have? Facilitative Leadership in Local Government shows how officials can reach beyond the structural limitations of their position and work with the constraints of fragmented power to build strong and effective government. In this book, James H. Svara and expert contributors offer local government officials and those that work with them a guide to a successful new model of leadership--facilitative leadership. The facilitative leader accomplishes objectives by enhancing the efforts of others. Rather than seeking power for themselves, facilitative mayors or chairpersons seek to empower the city council and the city manager by stressing collaboration and collective leadership among all parties so that all can work effectively together.

Bikers and hikers. Sex workers and social conservatives. Agencies and activists. The people involved in planning for a site—or a community—can be like the Hatfields and McCoys. And the process brings them together face to face and toe to toe. How can planners take conflicted communities from passionate demands to practical solutions? Facilitative leadership offers helpful answers. Cornell University’s John Forester has produced a dozen profiles of planning practitioners known for their successes in helping communities turn contentious conflicts into practical consensus. This remarkable book tells their stories in their own words. Lisa Beutler shows the way she got California’s off-highway vehicle users and recreationists on the same track. Michael Hughes shares the search for common ground for HIV prevention in Colorado. Shirley Solomon recalls how lessons learned in South Africa helped her build trust between Native Americans and county officials in the Pacific Northwest. Forester and his panel of experts offer no simplistic formulas but a great deal of practical guidance. From mind mapping to the Hawaiian concept of Ho’ oponopono (making things right), readers will come away with a wealth of ideas they can use to move from the heat of confrontation to the light of creative solutions in their communities.

This book is for anyone who has either worked for or been a difficult boss. It will especially benefit those new to management and struggling to figure out how to lead a team without being too controlling. Using the foundational ideas of clear expectations, honest and constructive feedback, and personal accountability, it is possible to manage people’s performance without controlling their behaviors. It is a shift in priorities and mindset, but has been proven with such companies like Nike, Microsoft, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, United Healthcare, and many other Fortune 100 companies.

Directly elected mayors are political leaders who are selected directly by citizens and head multi-functional local government authorities. This book examines the contexts, features and debates around this model of leadership, and how in practice political leadership is exercised through it. The book draws on examples from Europe, the US, and Australasia to examine the impacts, practices, and debates of mayoral leadership in different cities and countries. Themes that recur throughout include the formal and informal powers that mayors exercise, their relationships with other actors in governance - both inside municipalities and in broader governance networks - and the advantages and disadvantages of the mayoral model. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are used to build a picture of views of and on directly elected mayors in different contexts from across the globe. This book will be a valuable resource for those studying or researching public policy, public management, urban studies, politics, law, and planning.

This collection of 12 case studies illustrates the range of problems facing mid-sized cities in the USA and the variety of approaches that mayors have used to cope with them. Topics covered include education, crime, economic development and the political incorporation of minorities.

Being an effective city planner means being an effective leader. You need to be prepared to convince people that good planning matters. Often a well-written, thoughtful and inclusive plan doesn’t result in meaningful action, because planners don’t show leadership skills. At some point, some city planners become cynical and worn down, wondering why no one listens to them but not doing the self-reflection about how that could change. Leadership in Planning explains how to get support for planning initiatives so they don’t just fade from memory. It will guide city planners to think less about organizational charts and more about: · being a respected voice within your organization, both with staff and with your boss; · being a good communicator with people outside your organization; and · being able to understand how and when to push for good planning ideas to turn them into actions. Along the way, case studies bring these concepts to the real world of municipal planning. In addition, past planning figures’ actions are explored to see what they did right and what mistakes they made.