Now city manager for Lewes, Delaware, Ann Marie Townshend came to the ICMA Mid-Career Managers Institute prior to her leading role to gain perspective on critical leadership and management issues. She shared her thoughts about taking part in the program and connecting with other mid-career professionals to identify and develop signature leadership practices and strengthen core management skills.

1. Why did you choose to apply to this program? 

When I applied for the program, I had just been unsuccessful in applying for the Assistant City Manager in Dover, Delaware, where I was a department manager. The successful candidate had been a city manager in another jurisdiction. After reflecting, I met with the Human Resources Director and the City Manager of Dover and told them that when the City Manager retires, I wanted to be prepared to be the successful candidate to fill the vacancy. We began to develop a professional development plan that would address the areas of City operations. In looking at the ICMA website, I found the Mid-Career Managers Institute, which was a perfect fit for this professional development plan.

2. How did the Mid-Career Managers Institute influence your professional development?

As it turns out, the politics of Dover turned shortly after I joined the Mid-Career Management Institute.While I was going through the coursework, I was finding many of the items, in particular those that related to relations with elected officials, to be quite helpful. The ethics section also was quite timely in relation to some of the challenges that I was facing in my work life. In addition to the coursework being beneficial, the interaction with others in the program was very helpful as I encountered the challenges.

With the combination of coursework and interaction, I was able to reflect on how I could be more effective in my next career endeavors. The politics within my organization caused me to look for other opportunities in city management outside of Dover. In early 2017, I was successful in this regard and was hired as the City Manager of Lewes, Delaware, a small coastal town that is a tourism destination. What I learned in the program has helped me to be successful in this new role.

3. What was your experience like connecting with other mid-career professionals?

I enjoyed connecting with the other mid-career professionals. We all came from different functional areas of municipal government, but we were able to learn from each other’s experiences and grow together professionally. It would have been nice to have more opportunity to meet in person, but geography creates challenges to this.

4. In what ways did the institute influence how you think about the critical leadership and management issues facing mid-career managers?  What techniques have you learned to address them?

I use the book, Making it Work: The Essentials of Council-Manager Relations, as a reference. Perhaps one of the mistakes I made in my prior position in Dover is that I had stronger relationships with some members of Council than others. I unintentionally allowed my personal like or dislike of them to affect my building of relationships with them.  I have been more deliberate in my development of relationships with members of Council. I have been able to develop trustful relationships with all of the members of Council without an impression of bias toward any of them. This has helped me to maintain neutrality when they disagree among themselves. This has been instrumental to this new position.

5. What would you say to someone who is considering applying to Mid-Managers Institute? 

In my current role of City Manager of Lewes, Delaware, I have encouraged our Financial Officer to enter the program, as she aspires to move into the manager position at some point in the future. She will be applying this spring. I have mentioned the program to others in the field, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to move forward in their municipal management career.

Get more information on the ICMA Mid-Career Managers Institute.

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