𝐀 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥: It’s 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. The City Manager learns that a major recommendation scheduled for Tuesday’s Council meeting is based on information that may no longer be accurate. Staff has spent months on the project. Changing course will be inconvenient, potentially embarrassing and unpopular with people expecting it to move forward.⁣
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What should a good City Manager do? That question gets closer to the heart of the job than a résumé ever will.⁣
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Lenexa will soon make one of the most important hires in city government. In a council-manager form of government, elected officials set policy and hire a professional manager to carry it out. That person also leads the staff, budget, programs and projects that keep the city running.⁣
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The professional standards are broad for a reason. The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) identifies 14 core competencies for effective local-government leadership, including integrity, strategic leadership, communication, financial management, community engagement and organizational leadership.⁣
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But there is something behind all of those skills that is harder to measure: professional confidence.⁣
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Lenexa should be looking for someone who can welcome questions, give difficult advice, remain politically neutral and change direction when the facts change.⁣
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So back to Friday afternoon…⁣
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The city manager’s first concern should not be how a change in course might look. It should be whether the Council has the information it needs before making a decision. Maybe the item still moves forward. Maybe it gets delayed. Maybe the recommendation changes. What matters is that the new information is not ignored just because it arrived late.⁣
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That same judgment matters when a budget assumption changes, a neighborhood raises a legitimate concern, an employee catches an error or a councilmember questions a staff recommendation.⁣
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Over the next several weeks, we’re going to look at what those moments reveal about leadership.⁣
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And if you’re considering becoming Lenexa’s next City Manager, we hope you’ll be reading too.