Leadership Development Paper

This paper highlights the leadership development program of the small city I work for. Our leadership development program includes just one person, the Deputy City Manager. From what I have seen, the City Manager coaches and develops the Deputy City Manager on how city business is conducted. I don’t know there is a formal training manual for the Deputy City Manager to learn from. Rather, the Deputy learns and develops on the job under the tutelage and coaching of the City Manager.

In writing this paper, I recognize several weaknesses of my organizations approach to developing leaders. The first weakness is my organization’s lack of a vision statement. Pat Brans highlights the five common causes of organizational dysfunction and number …show more content…
His vision may not be the vision of the city residents as a whole or what has been previously approved by voters. For instance, my City Manager wants to buy every available piece of downtown property. His Deputy City Manager is a surveyor and has a strong real estate background. So, in my mind he is following his vision and hiring a real estate person to develop into the next leader. However, what if the citizens don't think we should be buying property? The citizens may be more concerned with government finance and accountability. Therefore, the citizens may prefer to have leaders with an accounting background. Not having a formal vision statement cause us to follow the City Manager's vision which may not align with the vision of the residents within my community.

In conclusion, the leadership development program of the small city I work for is very informal. The leadership development program consists mostly of the Deputy City Manager job shadowing the City Manager. I don't think this is an effective program especially considering the lack of an organizational vision