Field Notes on Civic Leadership

A favorite leadership rule of mine is: "What got you here won’t get you there".

Progress requires growth—through experience, reflection, reading, and learning from others.

Field Notes on Civic Leadership is a collection of observations from the practice of public leadership, shared in the hope that a few of these reflections may help others along their own leadership journey.

For Auld Lang Syne: Reflections on the Fiscal New Year

For those of us in local government, the end of May and the month of June rarely feel like the beginning of summer. To me, it has always felt like a professional New Years. When you operate on a fiscal year, the fiscal new year becomes deeply ingrained in how you think, lead, and reflect. It shares many of the same elements as our calendar new year: a time to pause, assess progress, set intentions, to come together, and to prepare for what comes next. It is an opportunity to

May 26

A kayaker on a fictitious river, facing man made obstacles such as a dam and a data center site.

Do Rivers Have Rights? Reframing Local Governance During Earth Week

Book Inspiration: Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane During Earth Week, it feels appropriate to pause and reconsider how local governments relate to the natural systems that sustain our communities. In my experience, it’s not that these systems are taken for granted. In fact, many communities have made meaningful progress—adopting climate action plans, investing in sustainability initiatives, forming environmental boards, and incorporating environmental considerations int

Apr 20

Perspective Metaphor contrasting views from the port hole versus views from the deck of a ship.

How does your budget reflect your values?

If culture is how an organization behaves, then the budget—along with our recruitment and retention decisions—is where those behaviors become real.

Apr 8

Empathy Is a Strategic Advantage

Book Inspiration: Wisdom Takes Work – Ryan Holiday There’s a line from Tennyson that Ryan Holiday uses to open the final section of Wisdom Takes Work , “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers…,"That line stuck with me. In leadership and in life, knowledge may sometimes feel like it’s simply acquired through process. We can read, study, attend, watch, and accumulate information. But wisdom is entirely something else. It's application, growth, and accumulation over time. It’s slo

Mar 24

When the Executive Meeting Reveals the Culture

Field Notes on Civic Leadership Book Reference: American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company I picked up this book while looking for examples of leaders who successfully guided organizations through major disruption using culture as a foundation for change. The story of why Bill Ford Jr. recruited Alan Mulally away from Boeing to lead Ford Motor Company is extensive and worth reading. For my purposes here, I want to focus on one of the most important t

Mar 13