The role of Canadian city managers : in their own words

"Local government has rapidly become both more important and more complex and the quality of municipal management is becoming more significant every day as local governments deal with a vast array of organizational and community challenges. The Role of Canadian City Managers brings together experienced city managers and municipal chief administrative officers (CAOs) across Canada to analyse the daily issues that they face. Each chapter deals with a particular issue or challenge, such as council/staff relations, collaborative initiatives, and crisis readiness. The book contributes to the literature on local government and public administration by providing insights from the "real time" lived experiences of city managers, spoken in their own words. The book also speculates about the contemporary leadership role of the city manager and the future of the city management profession. The Role of Canadian City Managers is a useful resource for scholars and students of local government and public administration, as well as public servants who work with or aspire to leadership roles within local government."-- Provided by publisher Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. City Management: More than a Job 2. Aspirational Incrementalism: Developing a Vision 3. Building Support for Strategic Planning and Priorities 4. Using Your First 100 Days Strategically 5. The Challenge of Leading Up: Strategic Alignment with Council 6. Council-Staff Relations: Forward Motion or Spinning Wheels? 7. The Most Important Relationship in Local Government: Mayor and City Manager 8. City Manager and Mayor: Independent or Partners? 9. What Does Diversity-Inclusion Look Like in Action? 10. Diversity from Bottom to Top: The City Manager and Workplace Diversity 11. Indigenous and Municipal Relationships: The Art of Collaboration 12. The Gift of Clarity and the Freedom to Innovate 13. Rowers, Coasters, and Drillers: How Team Building Can Improve Your Crew 14. Five Strategies for Successful Municipal Intergovernmental Relations 15. Leading Beyond: Building Relationships for Intergovernmental Collaboration 16. More than Resilience: Towards an “Antifragile” Organization – The Case of Gatineau 17. Managing during a Crisis: Lessons from Fort McMurray 18. Building Partnerships: Hard Work, Patience, Commitment, Adaptation, and Opportunities 19. Nurturing the Community’s Soul Source 20. Community Development: Navigating the Rocky Shoals of Community Change 21. From Dreams of Being a Rock-and-Roll Drummer to City Manager 22. A City Manager’s Career Journey 23. Mentoring: Building the Next Generation of Municipal Professionals 24. The Canadian City Manager Looks to the Future Contributors