Australia's National Local Government Newspaper Online

Learning leadership

The UK Experience by Malcolm Morley *

A key element for the continuing evolution of Councils and Local Government is political and managerial leadership. As we have seen throughout the world, in both the private and public sectors, without effective leadership organisations lose their way with often dire consequences for customers and staff. There is no doubt that leadership is a key strategic issue.

There is also no doubt that aspiring leaders are willing to try following the guidance of many of those who’ve been hailed as successful. The shelves of bookshops are full of the ‘my way’ advice of business leaders.

Recognising the importance of leadership the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has funded the creation of the Local Leadership Centre for England, see www.lg-leadership.gov.uk The centre has been established to get Councils to invest in and to develop political and managerial leaders through:

• making the case for investing in the leaders of today and the future
• providing advice on what works
• developing the range and quality of supply
• achieving efficiencies through more competitive procurement.

A significant challenge for all organisations is to recognise/act when a particular leadership style is no longer appropriate to the stage of the organisation’s development and the challenges that it faces.

Organisations, like people, go through different stages that require different leadership styles. A turnaround situation often requires a different leadership style to an organisation that is seeking to evolve from a position of excellence.

It will be interesting to see how the Local Leadership Centre addresses this issue. The Centre can only ‘lead horses to water’ it is then up to the people within organisations to recognise the need to review the appropriateness of their leadership for the organisations that they lead.

Leadership and power often go hand in hand. Changing leadership therefore often requires an external stimulus. A stimulus caused by a crisis that either empowers or forces stakeholders to act. This has been seen in England in both the public and private sectors where poor published results have been followed by changes in leadership.

A further key challenge for Councils is to attract and develop leaders of the future at both the political and managerial levels. People join Local Government for a wide variety of reasons. Attracting individuals with leadership potential is about changing the perception of Local Government and individual Councils. It’s also about the organisational culture, how individuals are valued and how they are given the scope to develop. Leadership defines organisational culture.

Current leaders must be open to change if organisational culture is to evolve and future leaders are to be developed. The Improvement and Development Agency (www.idea.gov.uk) is helping with the development of leaders through its Leadership Academy for Councillors and its Advanced Leadership Programme for Managers.

The private sector is awash with advice. Councils are seeking to learn from all sectors. Learning about leadership, however, is the easy part. The acid test is whether or not the ‘followers’ are prepared to be led by the leader!

* Malcolm Morley is Chief Executive of Harlow District Council and can be contacted via the Editor, email info@lgfocus.com.au The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of his employer.

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