By James Wickman, ICMA-CM

When the manager goes to a three-day conference, the office buzzes with sighs and eye rolling over the anticipation of newfangled fiats to follow. Now, imagine that the manager leaves for three weeks to go to Harvard! Staff’s collective imagination and fretting could very well cause spontaneous combustion.

Last year, I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University. Studying at the John F. Kennedy School of Government proved to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For this experience, I owe thanks to the Taubman Company Fellowship for Executive Excellence through the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.

What Did I Learn?

I have been asked numerous times what I learned and have found my words lacking. It is difficult to distill three weeks of intense education into a coherent response. In the end, however, there are no wholesale changes. Just simple, incremental improvements to what managers already do well.

Don’t get me wrong. I had plenty of aha moments. I was duly reminded of common sense and gained new tools. I also learned logical frameworks for principles that you might already know and just did not realize there was an entire school of thought from which to further benefit.

String all of that together for three full weeks, within a well-designed ecosystem of people and learning, and I found myself thoroughly reinvigorated for professional focus. Here is my list of major takeaways from the three-week program that are simultaneously simple and profound to me:

1. Be a student of our founding fathers. There is much to learn about the thoughts behind their words. It applies to all levels of government, big and small.

2. Relationships matter. Invest yourself in others sincerely.

3. There are no leaders, just exercises in leadership. It’s about choosing effective behaviors.

4. Listen. Covey nailed it: “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” The best decisions and solutions are born from this.

5. Elicit multiple perspectives. Don’t get stuck on one idea.

6. Be positive. Focus encouraging energy in your interactions and messaging to both staff and residents. There is a world of difference in the response.

7. Focus. Try to have no more than two major priorities in front of you at any one time.

8. Be prepared for windows of opportunity. Many brilliant ideas are wasted or lost for lack of preparation and discernment for the right time to take action.

9. Are you offering value to the public in return for their tax and trust? Ask this for all you do.

I can’t possibly do justice to these nine points by summarizing. In fact, each word evokes deep and rich reflections for me that the reader could not possibly know or understand. So this list is of more value to me than it is to others. I look forward, however, to fruitful conversations I might have with readers in the future, on any or all of these thoughts.