muniBLOG: Administration

10 Golden Rules for First-Time Managers

One of the biggest challenges we see new first-time managers come up against is changing their mindset when they first take on their new role. As an individual contributor, they were mostly concerned about their own performance and success. As a Manager, they now need to shift their thinking to help other people succeed. And not just their direct reports, but also those who contribute to their team’s success, such as internal and external suppliers to their team.

It’s not an easy shift, because we become habituated in our thinking. So, it’s really about changing our focus and habits.

How do we do that?

By consciously selecting what we want to focus upon, and what new habits we want to develop.

It takes effort, but it’s worth it. We decided to put together a list of things to do, ten in total, to help you achieve that mindset change. Here they are:

  1. Avoid the Expert Syndrome – Your role as a manager is to help other people succeed. When they succeed, you succeed. Many first-time managers make the mistake of thinking that they are the manager because they are the most accomplished person on the team – they are the expert. This is the biggest mistake I see new managers make. Action: You need to give away your expertise.
  2. It’s Not About You, It’s About Them – Your first duty as a manager is to better understand your team members – their goals, career aspirations, strengths, and weaknesses. Even their fears. This also applies to a better understanding of your own manager.
    Actions: 1) Help your team succeed by focusing on their professional and personal development. 2) Seek to understand your manager. 
  3.  Don’t Try This Alone – Gone are the days when managers worked out what needed to be done, by whom and by when, and then gave out the orders. Times have changed and people expect to be included in the planning of their work. They also have higher expectations when it comes to greater freedom in how they do their work. You need to be able to balance the need to get work done safely, on time and on budget with these new expectations.
    Action: Develop collaborative based planning, problem-solving and decision-making processes.
  4. Delegate to Coach – When you engage in collaborative planning, you will discover many opportunities to delegate tasks to your team members which will stretch them. They need your support in developing the competencies to perform these tasks. That’s where your role as a coach plays a big part in their success and also yours.
    Action: Learn the skills of coaching.
  5. Build Up Your EQ Muscles – Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is just as vital as General Intelligence (IQ). It’s now a well-established fact that how you manage your emotions plays a vital role in how you build strong relationships. EQ is not about becoming “softer” in how you handle interactions with others, especially in emotionally intense situations. It’s about stopping your emotions from taking control of your behaviors. Actions: 1) Learn more about E.Q. 2) When faced with intense emotions, say “I can’t help feeling the way I feel right now, but I can choose how I will respond.” 
  6.  Live Your Beliefs and Values – Organizations have core beliefs and values, so do you. As a manager, there will come a time when you will need to defend your team. This is when your core beliefs and values will be put to the test. If you back away from such confrontations, you will lose the respect of your team and also your fellow managers, and probably even your own manager. This does not mean defending the indefensible. When a team member commits an offense, you have to be the first person to call it and deal with it.
    Action: Do the internal work to discover your core beliefs and values, especially as they apply to your role as a manager in helping other people be successful. 
  7. Find Good Role Models – Research has shown that we learn most from watching others perform. The same is true of learning to manage and lead. The three core processes of daily management are planning, directing/delegating and coaching. Other managers have taken the same learning journey as you, and many of them can be good role models for you to learn from.
    Action: Find good role models to learn from for planning, directing/delegating and coaching. 
  8. Find a Mentor – A mentor is uniquely positioned to help you progress in your career as a manager. Their role is to provide you with emotional and psychological support on your journey. In addition, a mentor will help you see the bigger picture and not get trapped in the minutiae of day to day organizational drama.
    Action: Find a mentor who is willing and able to support you. 
  9. Seek Out Mastery Experiences – Every managerial position has limitations in terms of time and resources. While you will need to develop many competencies, you will not always have the opportunity to practice them “on-the-job”. That’s where, working with your manager and mentor, you can identify opportunities where you can step away from your day to day duties and perform roles that will broaden and deepen your skills. These could be special assignments, volunteer opportunities and even shadowing a more experienced manager.
    Action: Talk with your manager about your development and craft a personal learning plan with the support of your manager. 
  10. Solicit and Act Upon Feedback – Without feedback, you won’t know if you are improving. Leadership 360 feedback systems have matured to such an extent that now they are an indispensable tool in your management toolbox. Keep in mind that your manager, staff, and others want to help you improve, so take advantage of that willingness by providing them with the opportunity to support you on your journey. Action: Seek 360 feedback

You don’t need to go it alone. You have assets and resources available to you if you just ask. So many first-time managers simply don’t get the training they need to succeed, and as a consequence, the majority fail at reaching their true potential as a manager and leader. Don’t make that mistake.

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A Sobering Thought – Is Your Succession Planning Underway?

How’s this for a sobering thought?

According to Statistics Canada’s – Canadian Demographics At a Glance – by the year 2030, deaths are expected to outnumber births in Canada. In addition, Statistics Canada projects that by 2021, one in four members of the labour force could be aged 55 or older.

This means there won’t be as many young workers entering the workforce – plus the current workforce is going grey as we speak.  The result of these two merging factors is labour shortages in many professions Canada-wide.  

Municipalities are no different.  In fact it may be even more difficult for municipalities to attract youth to these roles because youth do not really understand what municipalities do or what it means to work in a municipality. It’s therefore imperative for municipalities to find ways to reach secondary and post-secondary students to educate them on the merits of a municipal career in order to attract them to becoming tomorrow’s leaders. 

What is Succession Planning?

 

Simply put, succession planning is getting the right people with the right skills in the right roles at the right time.

In the words of one of our professional members, “Succession planning and development should be like a well- run relay race. The transitions should be smooth.” (Prism Group International, Sophie Mathewson, President & Coaching Practice Leader)

Many municipalities are proactive and have succession plans in place, but there are still many others that do not give it much thought or consideration until key personnel leave and there’s a scramble to replace them. Sadly, the exodus of one key person often sets off a domino effect that just results in another municipality needing to hunt for a replacement.  Again, there’s a real need to bring youth and new candidates into the municipal stream.

For those who have not given it much thought yet, here are few things to think about as you start to develop your succession plan.  

In broad terms, succession planning starts with a sound assessment process;  

  1. Identify key areas and key positions you will be losing (number of pending retirements, which year, etc.) so you can identify future needs. Create an inventory of sorts.
  2. Take a look at the key competencies the incumbent has now and determine whether or not these are the same competencies you need in that position in the future.  
  3. Create programs for pre-retirees and if they don’t already track their processes, have them start doing so.
  4. Assess the skills you have in-house and compare them to the skills you need in the future
  5. Determine if there are any interested employees in-house and assess their ability to fill any of the upcoming vacancies. Your performance management program will help with identifying if there are qualified in-house staff to fill positions.
  6. Match the skills and capabilities of your current employees to their career ambitions
  7. Identify any training needs and create customized development plans to develop talent.
  8. Evaluate whether or not you will need to move to an external hire and if so, set the wheels in motion to ensure that you can have the position filled by the expected vacancy date.
  9. Monitor and measure success. 

Don’t forget that using early retirees from the municipal world and municipal consultants can also form part of your succession plan.  These experienced veterans can often get you past the hump until you can find permanent employees. They can also be utilized to mentor your new hires and they can pass the relay race baton of knowledge and experience on to tomorrow’s leaders. 

The competition to replace retirees and fill vacant positions will no doubt be challenging over the next decade but by initiating a sound assessment process today you will be well on your way to having the right talent in the right positions by 2021!

 

Susan Shannon is the Founder & Principal of muniSERV.ca and muniJOBS.ca

[email protected]

 

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The (Old) Elephant in the Room

Over the last few years I have attended several well-organized conferences and seminars in Canada and the U.S on the nature of work in the future. At each event, I listen carefully for any mention of one of the most powerful segments of the workforce who bring impressively high levels of innovation, productivity, and experience to the conversation — that being, older adults.

Sadly, I am always greeted with silence on the issue.

Diversity doesn’t seem to acknowledge age. I don’t hear mention of the possibility of hiring, retaining, or recruiting older adults as a possible solution. Repeatedly, older adults, an often underestimated and disregarded segment of society, lack recognition…..

Read my full article in The Toronto Star

By Helen Hirsh Spence, Top Sixty Over Sixty

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IT Projects & Black Swans

Have you ever been involved in an IT project that was difficult and resulted in a less than optimal outcome? I still joke about being a survivor of a large-scale IT implementation project. That was more than ten years ago and the memories are still fresh and painful. That is not to say that all IT projects end in disaster and I have seen a number of IT projects succeed in my career. Still the stigma remains and there is ample anecdotal evidence in the workplace that IT projects are particularly prone to failure.

Does this belief hold up under more rigorous scrutiny? According to Oxford University professor Bent Flyvbjerg, who has spent his career studying this subject, IT projects are actually not the worse type of project. He found that globally, across all industries, the percentage of projects that come in over-budget are:

Ø  50% of IT projects

Ø  60% of Energy projects

Ø  70% of Dam projects

Ø  90% of Olympic Games[1]

So only half of all IT projects come in over-budget. That somewhat mixed news for IT projects is tempered, however, by the obvious fact that IT projects are much more prevalent. IT projects are happening every day in organizations all over the world while large energy projects, dams and Olympic games are much fewer in number and less frequent.

In another study, Flyvbjerg and his colleague Alexander Budzier, focused solely on a sample of almost 1,500 IT projects.[2] The projects in the study included enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, document management, and other management information systems. Many of the projects looked at were in the US public sector but surprisingly the results showed little difference when compared to projects in the private sector or other locations around the world.

Here is what they found:

v  Average IT project cost overrun is 27%

While that average might not seem alarming what they were startled to find, and what that average was hiding, was this reality:   

v  1 out of 6 IT projects had cost overruns of 200%

v  1 out of 6 IT projects had a schedule overrun of 70%

That means nearly 17% of all IT Projects are nightmare projects or what they call “black swans”.[3] Using a term popularized by best-selling author Nassim Taleb, black swans are “high-impact events that are rare and unpredictable but in retrospect seem not so improbable”.

There are many reasons for this high rate of IT project black swans but Flyvbjerg and Budzier point out a common finding was that sales and product development engineers and managers often have less than adequate skills in implementing the technology itself.  

The end result of these IT black swans is usually the same: increased financial pressure, reputational damage, and often loss of jobs, particularly those deemed responsible for the project. If a private sector organization is already weak before the black swan, the black swan IT project can often be fatal to its very survival. In the public sector, the organization survives but the public is left to pay for the mistakes through additional tax burden.       

To avoid becoming the next IT black swan case study, Flyvbjerg and Budzier say that we should always assess our organizational readiness through a 2-part stress test before beginning our next large IT project:

1.       Can the organization afford the cost if our largest IT project goes over-budget by 400% or more and if only half the benefits are realized?

2.       Can the organization absorb the impact of having 17% of all our medium sized IT projects coming in over-budget by 200% and missing the project deadline by 70%?   

These scenarios seem far-fetched when viewed at the outset of the latest IT project but the records show they happen all too often and no organization or industry is immune.  

As I said at the outset, many IT projects do succeed coming in on-budget and on schedule. According to Flyvbjerg and Budzier, the IT projects that are successful all share these common 7 key characteristics:

1.       Stick to the schedule

2.       Avoid scope creep

3.       Break the project down into manageable pieces

4.       Have the right people

5.       Minimize turnover of team members

6.       Align with business needs

7.       Focus on single objective and measure all activity against that target

  

  

[3] Nassim Taleb, “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”, Random House, 2007

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Ontario Announces New Municipal Modernization Funding Program

Shortly after the Province let the air out of the tires of the Regional Government Review convoy, it announced another round of funding as part of the new “Municipal Modernization Program” (MMP). Small and rural municipalities across Ontario now have access to an additional $125 million through 2022-2023.

This new program allows municipalities to apply for funding to “undertake expenditure reviews with the goal of finding service delivery efficiencies and lowering costs in the longer term.” 

Some of the criteria include the use of an independent third-party reviewer who would identify savings and efficiencies. These reviews could include; a line-by-line municipal budget review, a service delivery review, modernization/technology opportunities, and a review of administrative processes, all in an effort to create efficiencies and reduce costs.   

The reviewer would present an actionable series of recommendations and the threshold for these reviews is anticipated to be between $20k and $200k.

The Province requires the municipality to provide the local Municipal Services Office with its intent to participate in the program by November 22, 2019 and there is a formal application (Expression of Interest Form) that the municipality must submit by December 6, 2019. The timelines are rather tight in that the work can start November 1, 2019 with the production of a final public report by June 30, 2020.

Each submission will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and the Province determines which submissions are approved in the January – February 2020 time frame.  The Province also requires the third-party reviewer’s draft report by June 15, 2020, with the intent that the final report would be posted publicly by the municipality by June 30, 2020.

If you are feeling somewhat rushed to make the timelines, the Province has also indicated a second round of applications will be considered in the spring/summer of 2020.

It’s rather unfortunate that the Province won’t make public their third-party reviewer’s report (Regional Government Review) so that municipalities could determine if some of the gems provided to the Province might be worth considering as part of this next phase of municipal modernization.  

No doubt some of the suggestions made throughout the extensive consultation process may have provided some insight for the municipalities who now are tasked with establishing their priorities around the modernization program. Wouldn’t it have been great to capitalize on the work of Mr. Fenn and Mr. Seiling and launch into initiatives that had already been vetted by independent third-party reviewers? 

Ontario is approximately $350+ billion in debt and once again committed millions more of taxpayers’ dollars to municipalities to look to find efficiencies and reduce costs.

At the end of this regional government review process the Province backed off and did not advance anything meaningful despite the expectations that changes would be forthcoming.

In an era of outdated governance models, aging infrastructure, strained debt capacity and lack of funding for programs and services, who are we kidding here?

Why do we still need to kick the tires?          

Just saying…

So don’t, miss out on your chance, don’t let the short timelines intimidate you. 

You are encouraged to express your letter of intent followed by your formal application in order to be considered for these additional funds. After all you are no longer the passenger but instead you have the steering wheel in hand.

We work with several municipalities across the Province. We know that there is still so much that your organization can do in order; to streamline your processes, to create efficiencies, to source and implement new technologies, to better respond to your customers, to improve your programs and services, to explore shared services and to ultimately save $$$$.

“You can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results.”

 ____________________________________________________

Using improvement methods of LEAN Six Sigma and AccessE11 technology we will make your organization; simpler, faster, better and less costly. We help you cut the red tape, remove the non-value-added activities and defects in your processes, improve customer service, help you to achieve measurable results and achieve a costs savings.

Contact us today at [email protected]

 

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How Do I Set up a Webinar? Productivity Tools to Help

muniSERV’s professional members know that as part of their membership, we advertise their webinars directly to our municipal members. We know it’s hard to get past municipal gate-keepers so what better way is there to increase your visibility and credibility with municipal decision-makers, than with a webinar?

 

And our municipal members love webinars – particularly the free Lunch & Learn type webinars.  We know this because our open and click-through rates for our newsletters are consistently higher than the industry average rates.   

 

To be successful though your webinar must be educational and address a topic of interest to municipalities.  Municipalities won’t register for your webinar if they think it’s just about “selling” your product or service.  

 

Here’s What Our Members Say

 

“At Emergenetics we are always looking for strong, credible partners as we build our international brand in Canada and I have loved partnering with muniSERV and muniJOBS.  

I am continuously impressed by the outreach opportunities we receive with our muniSERV membership, the response we receive to our webinars and the quality of the audience it attracts.”

Gail Green, President – Emergenetics Ontario  April 2019

 

Ideas for Webinars

 

If you sell risk management software, provide some educational – or even scary statistics and inform municipalities on ways to mitigate online losses.

 

If you sell HR services, speak to the importance of performance reviews and what led you to develop your solution.  You can even provide a sneak peek of your solution with a quick demo – but again, it must be delivered as a solution to the problem you are educating them on and not just a sales pitch for your services.

 

Here’s where I feel a bit hypocritical though. I know the value and the power of providing webinars (that’s why we encourage our members to do so), but I confess, that while I have co-sponsored some webinars, I have never actually set one up myself.  (because shamelessly – I don’t know how to do it!)

 

So, in order for me to help you I had to help myself by learning how to conduct a webinar.  Here are some tricks and tools I learned along the way.

 

Webinar Tools

Your webinar can be as basic as creating PowerPoint slides and delivering a webinar by using remote conferencing services that use cloud computing, such as Zoom or JoinMe.  

 

I use Zoom to share my screen and provide online demos of muniJOBS.  While I pay the annual fee for Zoom, you can use many of their features for free. However, their specific webinar service comes at an additional cost.

 

If you want folks to register for your webinar (and you will so you can gather leads), you will need a way to handle the registrations even if registration is free.  There are many registration tools available, but one I’m familiar with is Eventbrite.

 

To create and deliver webinars you may want to consider using specific webinar software.  Here’s an article by Joe Warnimont for codeinwp, that summarizes and compares the Best Webinar software of 2019.  

 

Once you’re ready to start creating your webinar content, these Six Tips for Success are a great guideline to follow.  Don’t forget to engage your audience with a poll, some direct questions or an icebreaker to make it interactive and fun.  There’s nothing worse than listening to a “talking head”, with no opportunity to provide input or ask questions!

 

Also, be sure you turn off any chat windows and on-screen notifications that could (and will) pop up while sharing your screen.

 

And finally, be prepared with extra batteries for your wireless mouse and a fully charged headset – because we’re all well aware of Murphy’s Law!

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Service Delivery Reviews 101

The Province of Ontario recently announced they will be partnering with municipalities without pursuing a top-down approach. (a.k.a. not proceeding with regional restructuring). 

Instead they will be providing municipalities with the resources to support local decision-making with additional funding of $125 million through 2022-2023. The funding will help municipalities conduct service delivery reviews, implement recommendations from previous reviews and undertake a range of projects such as IT solutions or process improvements.  The Municipal Modernization Program is application-based and all applications will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.  

Why?

Well, over time, as municipalities and the needs of their citizens change, some services that have historically been provided may no longer be needed, or perhaps there’s a better way to deliver them.  Often times a review of the service is necessary to address budgetary pressures or to improve efficiencies and practice fiscal restraint.

As a result of the recent funding announcement, over the next while many municipalities will be engaging outside professionals to work with them to conduct service delivery reviews. Due to the level of detail and analyses that takes place with these reviews, municipalities often engage a knowledgeable, experienced, objective third-party to guide them through the review and to remove any bias or perceived bias with the evaluation process. 

Even though there are many consultants who can provide quality expertise it’s important to have a basic understanding of what a service delivery review is, its purpose and the work and analyses it will encompass.  

What is a Service Delivery Review?

A service delivery review is a systematic review of municipal services and programs to determine the most appropriate way to deliver them. 

It focuses on setting priorities and where possible, finding new, more cost-effective ways to deliver the services the municipality has determined it wants or needs to continue providing.

A review of local services and programs can be undertaken to improve a current service, meet new service demands and/or maintain a current service by finding efficiencies to reduce the costs of delivering it, for example.

A service delivery review is a rigorous evaluation process that ask questions such as;[1]

  • Do we really need to continue to be in this business/service?
  • What do citizens expect of the service and what outcomes does council want for it?
  • How does current performance compare to expected performance?
  • How is demand for the service being managed?
  • What are the full costs and benefits of the service?
  • Are there alternative/better ways to deliver the service?

There is a role for staff, Council, citizens and other stakeholders during a service delivery review and each should be asked these questions.

Service delivery reviews are labour-intensive, so identifying up front the staff with the range of knowledge and experience and the resources necessary for the review, is extremely important to its success. Typically, this will be the staff who is familiar with the operations of the service or program being evaluated.

The review will look to see if there are internal improvements that can be made or if there’s a need to investigate other methods available to deliver the service/program.  For instance could the service be outsourced more cost-effectively than trying to deliver it in-house, could staff receive quality training digitally rather than travelling to classrooms, is there a different bill payment solution to use, etc.?

Council has a critical role in representing the public and consider the well-being of the taxpayers by determining which services the municipality provides, as well as providing direction on the  specific outcomes or deliverables they want the review team to achieve.

Summary:

This is a very brief, high-level look at service delivery reviews. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs has a great online resource, “Making Choices A Guide to Municipal Service Delivery Reviews for Municipal Councillors and Senior Staff”, that sets out a six-stage approach to service delivery reviews.

The full guide was invaluable to me as the first CAO of a newly restructured municipality who was tasked with the responsibility of reviewing the services and programs of each of the five former municipalities and assessing whether they were still relevant in the new municipality and/or if there were better more cost-effective ways to deliver them.

Yes as mentioned, service delivery reviews are labour-intensive, but they are also an extremely interesting challenge – and a process, I thoroughly enjoyed.  When you open up your mind to thinking outside the box and adopting new ways of doing things it will save the municipality time and your taxpayers money.  And that’s rewarding!

One Final Word

My article just wouldn’t be mine without including a small plug to remind municipalities that over this past year, we have added more professional members who offer a wide variety of amazing new and innovative products and services that can help you achieve those efficiencies directed by the Province.

Why not search muniSERV for the service you’re looking for?  You’ll be amazed at some of their offerings!

You may even find that consultant who can help you with your service delivery review! 

Susan Shannon is the Founder & Principal, muniSERV & muniJOBS

Susan can be reached at [email protected]   855.477.5095

[1] A Guide to Service Delivery Review for Municipal Managers, Ministry of Municipal Affairs

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Using Technology to Expand Municipal Capacity

Transparency in politics has become a hot-button topic, especially over the last five years. Government mistrust is at a peak and people are demanding answers and access to information. Voters calling for transparency was witnessed in this past Federal election of a minority government. Federal and Provincial politics are having an influence on how municipalities operate. Most municipalities are the principle point of contact for the average citizen which forces them to adapt faster than what’s been happening at the provincial or national level.

The Government of Canada is committed to being an open government, which they believe can be achieved through three streams: open data, open information, and open dialogue. The goals being to empower citizens, fight corruption, and strengthen technology, which helps overall governance. Providing citizens with these three streams will allow government to create trust and accountability. Once data is openly available, citizens will be informed and educated. With the rise and access of new technologies, governments can combat these problems and secure public confidence. It’s the governments responsibility to enable technology to combat these concerns.

At the local level, many municipalities are adhering to these three streams far better than their national counterparts. They are posting their bylaws, procedures, meeting minutes and agendas online, so their constituents are informed and up to date. In fact, some municipalities are going as far as taping council meetings so there’s full disclosure and little room for mistrust.

To read the full BLOG click here!

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The Art of Story-Telling – The New Marketing?  

Everything I’ve been reading lately tells me that people love a good story and that story-telling is a way to position yourself as an authority in your field.

Anyone who know me well, knows I’d much rather tell a story than create marketing material.  Full disclosure here – marketing is not my forte and marketing to me often feels forced and unnatural.  That’s just not who I am.  I want to help people, not “sell” to them!

However, I do recognize that marketing is critically important to the growth of any business.  After all, people need to understand what you’re selling and how it can help them, if you want your business to succeed. 

So, let’s give this a try.  I thought you might be interested in knowing why I created muniSERV and why I’m so passionate about helping both municipalities and my professional members alike.

In case you didn’t already know, earlier in my career, I was a municipal Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), in small and medium-sized municipalities in Ontario.

We wanted to continually improve service delivery and operate more efficiently but with shrinking funding and legislation constantly changing, we were increasingly under pressure to find new and innovative ways to collaborate and streamline operations.   

Frustration #1

It used to drive me crazy when I needed to get 3 or more quotes in compliance with my purchasing by-law, but I didn’t know where to find companies or professionals who provided the services I needed and often couldn’t find one!  (I’m dating myself here, but the introduction of Pay Equity legislation comes to mind as an example).

I’d call a neighbouring municipality to see “who they used”, but every municipality’s needs are different, so a one-size consultancy doesn’t necessarily fit all.  We couldn’t afford the large firms but were legislated to comply the same as larger municipalities who could afford them. There was nowhere to search for more servicing options (i.e. smaller, independent consultancies, early retirees, etc.).  The result of this frustration – the development of the Find Municipal Experts & Services database.

Frustration #2

The RFP process also frustrated me (still does actually). RFP documents were time-consuming to develop, costly to advertise and opportunities for exposure were limited, with no focus on my target (posting in newspapers comes to mind). This resulted in limited and often no responses. A big waste of time and money! The result of this frustration – municipalities can post their RFPs, Bids & Tenders for free on muniSERV and our partnership with bidsandtenders gets them broader, national exposure and tracking of plan-takers capabilities, resulting in more responses and ultimately, more competitive quotes.

Frustration #3

Fortunately, in the municipalities in which I was CAO, we didn’t have too many job openings.  In fact, I am pleased to note that some of the folks I placed in positions after restructuring almost 20 years ago, are actually still working in the same municipality!  But, when we did need to post a job, the price was high, there were limited places to post it and the ROI was low, often with no one responding to the job ad.  The result of this frustration?  Working with municipalities to develop muniJOBS – Canada’s only online recruitment and career platform that brings municipalities and talented people together.

Frustration #4

I’m a big believer in coaching and mentoring people to become tomorrow’s leaders.  But, sending someone away to a course was out of the question by the time you considered; the cost of the course, the travel, the accommodations, meals, and time away from the office.  The result of this frustration?  muniLEARN – that provides digital training solutions for today’s environments.

There are numerous other resources, tools and strategic partnerships we’ve developed along the way and I don’t want to go through each one here. But by now you’ve guessed it – the common theme here is that every one of them was developed out of a frustration I felt in the CAO role – and I knew I was not alone! 

CAOs are busy people. They don’t have a lot of time to research things and in smaller municipalities they often don’t have the staff resources to do this for them either.

It seemed to me to be a no-brainer that municipalities should be able to go to one platform and quickly and easily find what they need – all in one convenient location.

But that’s not the end of the story!

All of this led me to thinking though, well, then how does a new or smaller consultancy or someone with a new municipal product or innovation for municipalities, reach municipal clients?

When I first entered the consulting world, I’d often hear complaints from professionals, that they couldn’t get past the gatekeepers in municipalities and that attending municipal conferences was cost-prohibitive for them as a new consultancy or business just starting out.

Then, when CASL (Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation) became law, this further eroded their ability to reach municipalities because it eliminated their ability to send emails to them. (and honestly, with my CAO hat back on here for a minute, if I didn’t know who was emailing me, it went straight to my trash folder) 

I realized there was a real disconnect here. 

Lightbulb moment!

The result of these two merging pain points; a) municipalities not being able to find consultants and services, and, b) consultants and professionals not having one location to market effectively to municipalities, is the premise of muniSERV.ca – “Connecting Canadian Municipalities and the Businesses That Serve Them.”

So, there you have it.  That’s my story.

I hope it helps you understand my passion for helping you, why I’m always working on your behalf to find new ways to do things – and why I will continue to always think outside the box! 

Please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].  I’d love to hear Your Story!

Susan Shannon is the Founder & Principal of muniSERV.ca, muniJOBS.ca & muniLEARN.ca

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The Biggest Mistake I See New Managers Make

When I became a manager, I made the same mistake myself. It’s the most common mistake that I see many first-time managers make. It’s a mistake that causes so much anxiety and stress in their lives, and it can be avoided. It’s a mistake that’s easy to make, but not so easy to fix.

I call it “The Expert Syndrome”. Let me explain…

In my case, my expertise got me noticed and got me promoted to a management position. I was on cloud nine. I was feeling euphoric. That’s when it hit me. My staff were not as “expert” as me. As a result, I unwittingly communicated to them that I was smarter, more experienced and certainly more effective at their work than they were.

This attitude of mine caused a very interesting dynamic to occur. They would bring me their work, and their problems to solve. I later discovered there was a name for this…upwards delegation! I found my in-tray and inbox overflowing with work that was certainly not managerial. The biggest issue I faced was that I loved the challenge, I loved being the expert!

I had to find a way to let go of the need to solve all their problems. That’s when my mentor showed up. He was an experienced manager, and quite successful too. He asked me to describe my role as a manager. As I reached for the job description that HR had given me, he stopped me in my tracks. “You don’t need that” he proclaimed. “Just tell me in your own words what your role as a manager is, and make it brief!”

I was stuck. You see, I thought that the role of a manager was complex and multi-layered. Too difficult to explain in just a few words. He left me to ponder on it for a few days. When we met again, I was still struggling to come up with a clear definition of the role of a manager. My mentor was not about to let me off the hook. He knew I was struggling, but he felt the struggle was natural and would pay off in the end. He left behind a little booklet titled “Servant Leadership” and suggested I read it.

That little booklet set me off on a journey that continues to this day. At times, it’s been a somewhat crazy yet exhilarating journey. I’ve now reached a point on that journey where I can explain the role of a manager in a few words, here they are:

Your Role As A Manager Is To Help Other People Succeed

Now I know, with all the articles, books, courses, online content on management and leadership out there, that this definition may seem to be overly simplistic to many of you reading this. I understand. It’s my definition, unique to me. It works extremely well for me. It may or may not work for you. I get that.

I learned along the way that all the management and leadership competencies (and there are many!) I needed to master could be summed up in what I call The Management Trilogy:

  • Daily Management – Leading with Values
  • Crisis Management – Leading with Valor
  • Strategic Management – Leading with Vision

You need to help others succeed in these three areas. When they succeed, you succeed.

To learn more about The Management Trilogy, subscribe to our free four-part online course at Management4m.com

 

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