Dennis Hovenden, ICMA-CM
Chief Executive Officer
Frankston City Council
Frankston VIC, Australia
d.hovenden@bigpond.com

These are the key points that I believe make an effective manager:

Set daily goals and continually check to ensure they are being met.

Get out and about in the organization to ensure you know how staff members and teams are progressing and how they are implementing set tasks.

Make sure you are always approachable. An effective manager will have staff wanting to engage, so discuss ideas and be seen as a mentor.

Have confidence in your skills and expertise but continually seek to improve by listening to others and learning from their experiences.

Continue to ensure that your knowledge of local government is up-to-date by learning something new and putting it into practice.

Make things happen—don’t wait for them to occur—so it is important to be planning for the next challenge.

Stephanie Monroe Tillerson
City Manager
Woodruff, South Carolina
stillerson@cityofwoodruff.com

 

As long as the council has not locked me out of city hall and my office, I am being an effective manager. On a serious note, I meditate. I do not meditate daily, but I do try to exhale and reflect on my week’s/month’s work with the goal of gut checking what I did right and wrong.

I continue to master my strengths and where I fall short, understand and improve on those weaknesses. At the same time, I try to make sure the right people are in place who will supplement those weaknesses in a positive and proactive way.

Finally, I go to the residents of Woodruff every Friday. Through social media, I have “talk-back Friday’s with the city manager” on Facebook throughout the day. I swing open the doors to discuss whatever is on residents’ minds.

Noel Bernal
City Administrator
Falfurrias, Texas
nbernal@ci.falfurrias.tx.us

As the city administrator of a small community, being effective means managing oneself before anything else. Keeping track of various projects becomes a challenge with limited staff and can lead to having less time to focus on the “big picture” and the long-term needs of the community.

My balanced approach to be effective everyday involves using a Gantt chart, which offers a weekly, monthly, and yearly schedule, for a project management approach to short-term tasks. Evoking vision, however, in my day-to-day communication with elected officials, staff, and residents on how the community can improve its future is what I would consider most critical.

Being an effective manager in the twenty-first century means managing in an anticipatory state by seeking transformational opportunities for progressive change, not only accomplishing everyday tasks.

Martha (Marty) Wine, ICMA-CM
City Manager
Tigard, Oregon
marty@tigard-or.gov

 An effective manager is someone who manages in every direction—up, down, sideways.

This primarily involves communication and such questions as: Who needs to know what I am working on? What should city staff be working on? What are the most important issues the council will face?

What can I do to eliminate barriers for council, staff, and community to achieve what they want?

Sometimes these are small moves, like making sure that I sign personnel actions or contracts, or helping that day’s union negotiations go well, or signing a lease for a property the community will use for open space.

I also spend my time on the phone with the council or community members to try to understand and reach toward everyone’s interests. And sometimes, it’s reminding everyone of our vision and keeping the horizon in view.