William Horne, ICMA-CM
City Manager
Clearwater, Florida
william.horne@myclearwater.com

When I think about what it was like being a new city manager, there are a range of experiences that stand out. These experiences often form the basis of how I respond to experienced and new managers who ask me for advice.

1. Know how your personality affects others.

2. Do your best to understand the aspirations and goals of elected officials, staff members, and residents.

3. Determine what you don’t know when you approach issues and problems.

4. Slow down your heart rate when confronted with emergencies because they may not actually exist as such.

5. Completely own your decisions and mistakes.

6. Respect everyone with whom you interact, especially people who are less advantaged inside and outside of your local government.

Mona Miyasato
County Executive Officer
Santa Barbara, California
mmiyasato@countyofsb.org

As soon as you can, form a personal team to support your needs. It can be a combination of your partner or spouse, a good friend, past mentors, professional coach, and others with whom you are close, but it should be people outside your organization.

Going into the No. 1 seat requires a greater demand on your personal as well as professional life.

As you make this adjustment, you need people who can give you objective feedback; with whom you can discuss personal issues that you would not want to share with people in your organization; and who can offer emotional and empathetic support in difficult situations. There can be many of those.

Sharon Lynn
City Manager
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
slynn@cityofrehoboth.com

First-time managers should spend a great deal of their time listening and communicating with staff. Whether senior-level staff or below, employees know the most about the organization.

Managers should ask questions like “what is most important to you about working here?” Everyone wants to be heard and most employees want to do the best job they can to impress a new manager.

Having the new manager effectively listen to each employee will do wonders to motivate them from the start of the new relationship, while providing staff with personal time to become acquainted.

Employees are eager to take advantage of any time a new manager is willing to give them. Listening attentively—asking questions and showing employees you truly care about them—will go a long way to forming positive relationships with staff.

Seth Hoffman, ICMA-CM
City Manager
Lone Tree, Colorado
seth.hoffman@cityoflonetree.com

Make a plan to communicate both formally and informally with your community’s council and staff.

I send a somewhat informal e-mail to councilmembers on a bi-weekly basis that gives updates on current projects, staff news, new businesses, and related information. It’s basically a digest of things I think their neighbors might ask them about.

Make sure your family and your hiring authority are on the same page for how much time you’ll be spending with the other.

If you wait until you get through all your e-mail or read everything that is on your desk before you leave the office, your kids will always be asleep when you get home.