Community Success Is Linked to City Council Effectiveness
 Published in the Missouri Municipal Review Magazine Spring 2025Â
by Bill Stark and Scot Wrighton
Published in the Missouri Municipal League Magazine
All city councilmembers want to be effective in their roles, but not all succeed. This article focuses on three high-level essentials elected officials should consider as they strive to successfully lead their communities.
LeaderGov has been privileged to work with hundreds of local governments around the country and we have observed how successful and unsuccessful cities tend to operate. We have also observed how council effectiveness is closely linked to community success.
1. Good Councils Think Long-Term and Set Clear Goals and Norms for the Organization
We have been surprised to see many communities operate year to year without written strategic plans for where they want to go and how they plan to get there.
With periodic turnover in elected and key appointed offices, it can be difficult to obtain and retain operational polic...
Two "people areas" of Local Government that cause leader pain
LeaderGov conducted an informal poll of local government leaders on LinkedIN and asked them which of these four areas created the most pain for them:Â
- People issues slowing progress
- People issues clogging HR
- Unresolved people issues
- People not succession-ready
By far, the two biggest pain topics were:Â
- People issues slowing progress (38% ) Â andÂ
- Lack of succession ready people (38%)
The Pain Associated with People Slowing Progress
We all know that tension on teams, past challenges and poor attitudes or past lack of follow-through can damage progress as teams work together.  As a leader however, it’s your job to address people and process issues that get in the way of results. Failure to do so, typically makes matters worse, not better.  In fact, not addressing people issues erodes your respect and often emboldens others to become less responsible in their work, since they know you are not likely to address substandard work.Â
When you do address people issues on you...
Four ways to lead any personality type on your team
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As a leader, it's important to know the people you work with. Strong relationships lead to stronger teams, and stronger teams lead to a more productive and more successful company. But getting to know people isn't just knowing their favorite TV show or the name of their spouse. That's trivia. To effectively manage your team, you've got to be aware of and understand your team members' personalities.
There are tons of personality tests out there: Myers-Briggs, Big Five, DiSC, StrengthsFinder, etc. All of these seek to categori
...Succession Planning Grid Using the 9-Box Grid
Local government leaders know that it’s important to have a succession plan and a way to identify each person’s development needs related to future roles. A terrific tool for cities and counties to use to identify gaps in readiness the 9-Box Grid.
Since local government base salary can sometimes sway employees to leave (and make it hard to attract quality talent) city and county leaders need to do all you can to groom and develop the talent you have in-house.
A 9-Box is a fairly simple approach to assessing your employees’ current potential and performance.
As the title describes, there are nine boxes in this assessment grid. Each box represents a type of employee that’s on your team and each type needs something different to grow and prosper.
 The vertical part of the grid has to do with potential. Â
- Do your employees have the potential to grow and develop into a leader and into a future larger role, of say….Water Billing Manager?
 The horizontal axis is about performance.
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