The purpose of this blogpost is not to take a position on the correct decision to make about Confederate statues; that is up to individual communities to decide.  Instead, our intention is to share wise leadership strategies to employ in the situation.

1.  Get the facts.  Invest in the appropriate research to learn exactly where the monuments and statues are in your community.  Who owns the property or holds the responsibility for its management?  Uncover the story of origin of the monument or statue.  Who paid for it, erected it, or dedicated it?  These facts provide clarity about history, intention, responsibility, and decision-making authority, while beginning to distinguish between legend, myth, assumptions, and truth.  Adam Lovelady writes about the legal issues related to removing Civil War monuments and statues from public property in today’s post on “Coates Canons: NC Government Law”  Statues and Statutes: Limits on Removing Monuments from Public Property
2. Figure out who cares, and why they care.  Alone or with others, engage in some political mapping to assess from where the currents of change leadership currently originate or where they might emerge, as well as where the resistance  can be found.  Be sure to include a broad range of perspectives.  Why does this issue matter?  Consider not only the perspectives of people of color or descendants of Civil War soldiers, new comers or old timers, but also people of faith, the business community,  historians, investors in your community, school children, etc.    If there are critical events coming up, such as local elections, assess how or whether this issue will be played out in that arena.
3. Invest in the process of decision-making.  An earlier blogpost,  “Making ‘Big Rock’ Decisions,” points out the importance of slowing down to listen, and doing so thoroughly and respectfully, when a decision is highly visible or symbolic.  Another blogpost, “Conflicting Views on Confederate Flag, Memorials, Symbols:  What to do in a ‘Post-Charleston’ Environment,” provides suggestions for successful citizen engagement on highly emotional issues.  Be prepared for public meetings to run long, attract large crowds, or require formal facilitation.
4. Avoid reinforcing the polarization with your language.  Train yourself to say “yes….and…” rather than “no….but…”  Whether or not a statue stays in place might become an “either/or” decision, and communities can still find ways to honor diverse histories or perspectives.
5. Choose your words carefully.  In volatile circumstances, we all need to take responsibility for not encouraging negative behaviors.  That can happen deliberately, but also by accident, by using phrases that are somehow vague or open to interpretation.  When public safety is at stake, public leaders are challenged to ‘share all relevant information’ and build trust by practicing transparency, while also tracking the magnification or distortion provided by the rumor mill, social media, or traditional media.

None of us can control how others react to our words and deeds.  All we can control are the steps we take to get clear on our roles, invest in the processes we use to make decisions, communicate clearly, and, as always, practice patience with our community members as we go about our work.

**  The School of Government will offer a one-day leadership development training on “Positive Leadership in a Polarized World,” on November 3, 2017, as part of its Public Leadership development series.  Be informed of updates by clicking on the link for “Notify me when details are available.”

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I believe organizational culture is critical to building those relationships. But what is it really? How do you define or measure it? Two definitions I came across on the internet were:

Organizational culture is a set of shared values, the unwritten rules with which are often taken for granted, that guide employees towards acceptable and rewarding behavior.

Organizational culture encompasses values and behaviors that “contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.”

From a strict clinical view, this makes complete sense. But who or what impacts and creates this culture. In my 20+ years of experience, I have witnessed that most organizational cultures are set by the tone and personality of their leader.

As a leader, eyes are always on you. A boss once told me when I entered executive management that you now “speak through a megaphone.” I love catchy slogans. A couple that resonate with me include the Pier 1 Imports saying “find what speaks to you” and the old Closeup Toothpaste commercial that said “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” I aim to set a culture that truly “speaks” to my staff and is also a reflection of what is important to me.

I am an “F or Feeler” on the Myers-Briggs personality test. I tend to be more glass half full than half empty. And then it just came to me – the P4 organizational culture model. It stands for:

1. People first.
2. Perseverance.
3. Passion.
4. Positive.

These attributes are so important to me. I smile every time I write or talk about them. My staff at the UNC System and State Budget Office embraced it. I hear folks talking about it in the hallway. It’s created a very positive buzz. It speaks!

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One comment stood out: “Wilson embraces being wrong.”

Within Army culture, being wrong and failure are synonymous, so I took this comment to heart.

However, after giving it more thought, the comment reflects the evolution of my leadership philosophy as my responsibilities expand. I am no longer leading small teams and units comprised solely of soldiers. Rather, today I am working in larger organizations staffed by a diverse workforce and engaged with external agencies.

As a young leader, I was focused upon the performance of my organization and obsessed with perfecting the rational decision making process. Today, I see less value in the development of decision making systems than in bringing together a broad set of stakeholders within and external to the organization to manage problems toward desired outcomes.

As a young leader, I sat at the top of a hierarchical Army organization and used centralized control to guide the team. Today, I see myself as a member of a strategic enterprise working together to solve problems in a complex and volatile environment. As such, I view the development of learning organizations, as described in Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, and decentralization as essential to achieving organizational goals.

This is where embracing of “being wrong” can serve as a positive attribute for public service leaders operating in complex environments. Katherine Schulz, author of Being Wrong, argued that the insatiable pursuit of being right can have a corrosive effect upon organizations. Alternatively, self-aware leaders who recognize their own limitations are more likely to find ways to tap into the collective power of the team to accomplish goals.

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If you haven’t seen the movie, you should. Not only for the superb acting and compelling story, but for the lessons it holds for local governments and the elected officials who govern them. You see, Hidden Figures is really the story of what happens when a talent pool is artificial, meaning that it does not include all available talent because, by design or accident, it excludes women and people of color.

Local government management today has a hidden figures problem. In North Carolina, women comprise 21 percent of county managers and 20 percent of city managers. And while we lack an official tally for managers of color (UNC/ELGL Diversity Dashboard Project), a stroll through our state city-county manager’s conference suggests we need more racial diversity in the leadership ranks. Which means that our communities are not pulling from the best talent pool.

Talent pools can be artificial for a number of reasons, one of which pertains to our mental images of what leaders should look like. Research tells us that people generally envision slightly older tall white men when they picture a leader. This automatic thinking becomes problematic when we evaluate potential candidates for leadership positions. The slightly older taller white males will have an automatic edge, despite the fact that the better leader – the one who would do great things for the community – may not be slightly older or white or male. She may be a 30-year-old African American woman; he may be a 35-year-old Latino man.

The good news is that this automatic thinking can be addressed: hiring bodies can test themselves on implicit bias. Resumes can be blinded for the first round of reviews, so that the resume does the talking. Search firms can be asked to drum up a gender and racially balanced pool of applicants. Hiring committees can post images of women, people of color and white men in leadership positions during their deliberations

But doing so takes intentionality. It takes women and people of color willing to step up to the plate and pursue the top positions. It takes research and education on diversity dynamics in local government to develop strategies for moving the field forward. And it takes elected officials who realize that there are Hidden Figures in local government, people who will make exceptional leaders regardless of their skin color or gender.

This blog post originally appeared on March 9, 2017, on The League of Women in Government website at leagueofwomeningovernment.org

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1. Tap a variety of perspectives. This includes various levels of management, departments, advisory board members, governing board members, leaders of citizen’s groups and others. The more your organization brings together information from all parts of the system, the less likely it is you will be blindsided. Mapping these key perspectives and organizing systematic ways of touching base (e.g., surveys, visits, phone calls, etc.) is key to success in this endeavor.

2. Assess and prioritize the information. We are all awash in the ocean of information. What part of all this input is accurate, relevant and actionable? For this kind of analysis, there also needs to be a diverse team (e.g. level, race, gender, department) that will sort, analyze, prioritize, and report the information gained making it more digestible and actionable.

3. Plan and take anticipatory action. Those short-term, actionable, important, likely and relatively circumscribed events should be assigned for action to the relevant unit. Those longer-term, actionable, and important and of broad impact, should be referred to a responsible team or task force with the expectation that a plan of action would be forthcoming.

4. Create a culture of leadership that is future oriented. Each leadership team should have some set of practices by which they regularly scan the present and imagine the future, even if it is only 5 minutes at the beginning of a meeting. Hold a monthly discussion of one hour’s length. and an annual strategy session . HAVE people report back from conferences they attend, etc. The “aha’s that result need to be taken seriously and acted upon.

Conclusion: Leading and managing in three time frames

Leadership, ever challenging, is becoming even more complex. In our current time of rapid change this means effective leaders must really run three different organizations (near term, mid-term, and long-term) on a rolling basis and make it all work together for the good of the many stakeholders of your organization. Giving sufficient attention to understanding and assessing the impact of future trends, events, and issues is key to delivering this high standard of value.
————-

*This is a much condensed version of an article originally written for Academic Impressions–see https://www.academicimpressions.com/news/how-good-your-crystal-ball

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The N.C. Commerce Park in Alamance County, North Carolina is an economic development success story that underscores how vital interlocal and regional collaboration is for community and economic development. It also highlights the power of partnerships and collaboration, and the importance of local leaders that share a collaborative mindset.

The N.C. Commerce Park is an 1,100-acre economic development zone located in the Hawfields area of eastern Alamance County. The area includes parcels owned by dozens of private land-owners who have voluntarily become partners with the N.C. Commerce Park in agreeing to easements and (very importantly) providing options on their properties. The 1,100 acres includes parts of Graham, Mebane, and unincorporated Alamance County. Site development involved $12 million for infrastructure, jointly funded by the three local governments and the N.C. Department of Transportation. Later the three local governments also each contributed $100,000 to the Alamance County Chamber of Commerce to oversee the site certification process.

Triad Business Journal, 3/2/2015

But what is perhaps the most innovative aspect of this partnership—and what demonstrates how substantial it actually is—is that the three local governments also have created an interlocal agreement to share the financial benefits. Tax revenues from within the Park are aggregated and split equally among the three entities. The cities of Graham and Mebane also have agreements in place regarding water and sewer service to the site.

Thus, what we have here is a really remarkable and complex partnership. A county, two cities, the Chamber of Commerce, several state agencies (including Departments of Commerce and Transportation), and, perhaps most importantly, dozens of local landowners. Graham City Manager Frankie Maness points out that “the greatest partnership in the [Park] is not between the local governments and the Chamber of Commerce, it’s with the landowners.” Securing easements, options on parcels, developing zoning overlays, making land purchases, et cetera required a great deal of communication and collaborative work with the private landowners.

So how did this partnership come to be? First, prior to a catalyzing opportunity in 2012, there was a long history of collaboration among the local governments and also between the local governments and the Chamber of Commerce. There was a history of working well together and thus a certain amount of relationship capital accrued between and among the entities involved. Maness, noting the positive working relationships, says the “partnership was not difficult.” Graham and Mebane have worked together on utilities and land use agreements for many years, and also have worked with the County and Chamber for years. “Our cities have long understood the value of partnership and have established seamless operations to ensure continued cooperation.” And all the entities have a shared goal of creating economic opportunity.

So when Wal-Mart was interested in locating a distribution center in the Hawfields area in 2012, a prospect of 450 quality jobs, it was quite natural for the partners to turn to each other. County Manager Craig Honeycutt noted that no one entity had the resources or clout to put together the total package needed to secure the Wal-Mart facility. They needed to work together, and they did. And landing the Wal-Mart facility was a significant win that became the catalyst for envisioning the development of the N.C. Commerce Park.

A committee was put together with representation from each of the local governments, and out of that committee came the vision, agreements, and financial commitments necessary to create the Park. The Park is directed by the oversight committee that works with the Chamber and also Samet Corporation to promote the site.

Stephanie Shaw, Triad Business Journal, August 29, 2016

That collaborative infrastructure has been leveraged to enable the partners to work together productively to offer not only an attractive site for business development, but also to put together incentive packages that make them very competitive regionally. Prescient Corporation, a high-tech construction firm out of Denver, Colorado, recently selected the site and will bring 205 quality jobs with them. Their CEO noted that of all the offers different sites made, the N.C. Commerce Park was the best. In addition to a terrific location, the three local governments put together an incentive package worth over $1 million that was combined with additional incentives offered through the state’s Economic Investment Committee. Governor Pat McCrory praised the high degree of collaboration among the local governments, noting that “businesses don’t care about political boundaries.”

The N.C. Commerce Park is still very new. It was officially created in March of 2015 and is still in the process of becoming a certified industrial site. Yet it is hard to call this project anything but a resounding success so far, with about $220 million in private investment and 750 new jobs between the three firms already secured (the Wal-Mart and Prescient facilities as well as a Lidl distribution facility). This successful partnership highlights many important lessons about interlocal collaboration specifically and collaborative leadership generally, including:

• The value of prior collaboration and trusting relationships.
• The value of a spark plug to help initiate collaborative investment. The City of Mebane invested over $150,000 upfront (easements and environmental costs) and contributed significant staff time prior to the partnership coming together.
• The value of equitably sharing in the costs as well as the benefits to the extent possible.
• The value of trusted third parties to work with and through (in this case, the local Chamber of Commerce).
• The value state government can add in supercharging interlocal collaboration through leveraging state resources (such as road construction and economic incentive funds).
• The value of having elected officials involved and on board throughout the process. The three boards unanimously supported this effort from day one.
• Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the value of having community leaders with a collaborative mindset. County Manager Craig Honeycutt importantly points out that there were “no egos – everyone was looking at the larger picture and the possibilities that this park and development could do for the future of Alamance County as a whole.”

Another longstanding principle of collaborative leadership is building on small wins; success does indeed breed success. You could look at the various ways the partners worked together prior to the possibility of the Wal-Mart distribution center as building a history of wins. Then the Wal-Mart facility become a huge win. And that lead to developing the N.C. Commerce Park as an additional big win, which led to the “wins” of landing the Lidl and Prescient facilities. That sets up this partnership well for the future, and offers important lessons for local government leaders elsewhere.

This article is a modified version of one that appeared in the Community and Economic Development blog, also hosted by the UNC School of Government.

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Most of the readers of this blog are people who hold governmental positions that require non-partisanship behavior. Others are people who got where they are, at least in part, due to their affiliation with one political party. Still others might be might be nonprofit leaders whose primary allegiance might be to a specific mission or particular client group, independent of political affiliation.

We are all in public service. We are all operating in a politically polarized country. We are all regaining our balance after an election that revealed deep divisions and generates passionate discussion.

How does a non-partisan leader move through this with integrity? Given that any response could present a target for criticism, the temptation might be to lay low and stay quiet. Tempting…but not effective in terms of addressing distress from any source, healing the divisions among us, and figuring out a new way forward together.

One of the better ideas generated this week comes from the author Elizabeth Gilbert. She suggests we reflect and respond to the question “How do I want to be in this situation?” None of us can fully control the situation, but all of us can make choices about how we respond.

We can create opportunities to have these discussions in the workplace, first taking care to ensure that participants are willing to model mutual respect and held accountable for doing so. This is also a good time for any organization or community to restate and reaffirm its values; they may well be put to the test later on.

As for me – today – how I choose to respond is to listen deeply, with patience, to everyone.  Not just even when I disagree with their votes, but especially when I disagree.

How do you want to be in this situation?

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It changes the way we behave.

And I firmly believe that when I am positive, it not only makes me better,

but it also makes those around me better.
-Harvey Mackay

A fundamental practice of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is to focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. Doing so enables us open up our thinking to explore our successes and opportunities rather than obsess about our shortcomings or failures. This practice does NOT mean that we sugar-coat or overlook reality. It simply means that we build on our immediate and local assets rather than focusing on what is not there or not desirable.

We all tend to find evidence to support our assumptions and values, no matter what they are. As public servants, we can use this inclination to our advantage in our interactions with both citizens and colleagues. This practice, based on the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, is called finding “the flip.”

This is not the same thing as putting a more palatable spin on a negative topic. Instead, it enables our capacity to recognize any positive assets or attributes that are contained within the hard situation. That’s the positive nugget, the gold. We want more of that.

Consider one simple example. You are leading a staff meeting following a week in which your community experienced conflict or, perhaps, a natural disaster. People are depleted and disappointed, AND there is a lot of work to do. Assume our society and we as individuals share the responsibility in varying degrees for the bad things that happened. Ignoring the weight or reach of the negative experience is not appropriate, and ignoring the work that has to be done today is not an option, either.

Try opening the meeting by going around the table to allow responses to one of the following questions:

• Share one simple action you saw or experienced in the last week that gave you hope for our capacity to act with integrity and compassion, even in challenging situations.
• Our systems were overwhelmed dealing with difficult circumstances last week. Share one small example of a successful interaction with the public that gave you pride in our organization.
• The stressful events of the last week indicate we need to strengthen arenas of both prevention and response. As we begin work to do that, share one practice or asset we have that strengthens our public interactions and should be retained into the future.

By naming that good stuff together first,  we can unleash the potential of that positivity and design the way forward together — a future that includes more of what we desire.

To learn more about using AI in your work in the public sector, join us in Winston-Salem on November 4, 2016, for a one-day workshop on Positive Problem Solving.

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Military training also encourages initiative and independent thought, and, when appropriate, expressing concerns about decisions or a state of affairs. But it also involves understanding that when a decision has been made you must do everything you can to implement it and influence others to act in the same way.

Contrary to what many without military experience may assume, the military teaches leaders not to rely on obedience, and training does not equate the wielding of authority with leadership. All of the branches define leadership essentially as influencing others by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission. They teach that leadership always must be adapted to the circumstances.

The need to adapt is certainly true for veterans who take on leadership responsibilities in civil organizations. They need to keep in mind that public service organizations usually do not share the military’s culture of formal authority. Veterans can be surprised by how much depends on voluntary cooperation rather than adherence to a chain of command. The word “obedience” is not uttered except derisively.

Military leadership training gives developmental experience of this adaptive nature. It involves being assigned responsibilities for peers and supervising their performance. Peers likely will not respond well to an authoritarian approach. Success depends on building mutually supportive relationships. Those who were unable to gain the trust of their peers may not have support when they most need it and it cannot be compelled.

In organizations in which appeals to authority are unlikely to be welcomed, leaders with military experience must be attuned to all the principles they were taught for effective leadership, especially the importance of integrity, communicating a compelling mission, and setting an example of commitment to that mission. Failure to be vigilant about important differences in organizational climate can have unfortunate consequences for both a transitioning leader and the organization. Individuals may speak out, ignore direction, or even act contrary to it. Harmful stereotypes about the military may be reinforced, causing other members of the organization to discount the leader’s ability as tied too much to a hierarchical and authoritarian culture. This can cause long-term damage to the leader’s standing within the organization and even impede openness to veteran hiring or collaboration.

Successful military leaders usually recall rarely having to wield the formal authority with which they were entrusted. They developed relationships within their units based on trust and respect and a unified commitment to mission accomplishment. Though the paths to developing these relationships and commitments may look different, the successful result looks very much the same.

Click here for Szypszak’s recent discussion of Learning from Military Leadership, published in PA Times.  

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Try an experiment. Grab three or four people and ask them to look at this painting for 30 seconds then close their eyes and describe what they saw. Don’t be surprised if each person sees the painting in ways others do not.

If we see things so differently, what might each of us missing? Leaders need to be continually aware of what they and others may be missing. Our brains are constantly painting a picture of the world around us. Leaders need to understand what others do and do not see in order to tap into and shape a common picture of the future—whether that means convincing people to launch a new business or take action to protect the environment. Effective leaders look for ways to bridge their own and others’ mental pictures so everyone shares a sense of why their work is important, how they will get things done, and what they will accomplish.

We start constructing an understanding how things work as soon as we are born. Early in life, we see the world as it is. Imagine a 2-year-old child’s jaw dropping as grandpa pulls a coin from behind her ear; children exist in the moment. As our brains develop, we learn things may not be as they first appear. When we aren’t looking the coin is hidden behind a finger. We become aware that words and actions are not the same—I’m not really going to “pull my hair out!” We build a mental model to explain why things are as they are and how the world works. Each of us believes our model is right. Uh oh. Now what?

As leaders we first need to accept that our own mental models may be wrong and incomplete. As Kathryn Schulz writes in Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, this is really hard—first, it’s hard to accept you’re wrong most of the time (trust me, I’m working on it) and, second,  it’s hard to help others recognize what they may be missing. That doesn’t mean it’s not important. In fact, it’s an essential leadership skill.

Every day we see leaders who are afraid of admitting their mistakes. Does anyone not make misteaks? Who has all the information they could possibly need before making an important decision? Still we decide things everyday. Should I be writing this blog post or doing something else? It’s always a choice and, if I miss something because I’m writing this, in retrospect, I may have made the wrong decision.

I admire leaders unafraid to make mistakes and curious to learn what they don’t know. I challenge you to be a leader who learns from others and the world around you. Going around having to be right all of the time is exhausting. Try asking yourself, “What am I missing?” I’ll bet you look at Renoir’s painting differently after hearing other people’s perspectives. Just imagine how asking what you’re missing might change your picture of the world.

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