How bad leadership spoils good planning

When it comes to learning management and leadership skills, professional planners say "I'm OK, but my boss and my colleagues could sure use some help."

This is the message we get consistently from a survey of planners and related professionals we conducted in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008.  There were more than 400 responses to the four surveys.  Planners and related professionals were asked what subjects they would like to learn more about, as well as what their supervisors, colleagues and staff should learn more about.  Respondents had 50 choices. The most common answers to what supervisors should learn: "Motivating staff," "leadership skills" and "(basic skills in) management."  With the exception of leadership skills, these choices ranked among the lowest when respondents who were supervisors mentioned their own learning needs.  (Urban design matters tend to top those lists.)

The findings reveal what seems to be a blind spot among planners about their own leadership and management skills. Regardless of their position, the work of almost every planner involves leading and managing teams, individuals, projects, and relationships. Planners spend a significant amount of their time, if not most of it, on these kinds of tasks. Yet they seem more willing to find fault in others than in themselves.

This is a problem because bad leadership is expensive. Under the watch of poor leaders and managers, staff morale declines and workers feel less committed to the organization and its mission. That tends to lead to work of lesser quality and things getting done more slowly. Poor morale saps energy and contributes to an uncomfortable climate that turns petty disputes into interpersonal wars. And workers who lose their focus and commitment to quality are prone to making more mistakes.

Even worse, poor leadership can stop planners from producing new ideas and solutions to problems. (If you've got a boss who constantly bullies, criticizes, or doesn't give you your due credit, why would you want to do anything extra to make him look good?)

As with planning, the problems trace back to bad assumptions and a lack of knowledge about leadership and management. A lot of people think that you need to pay people more money to motivate them. Wrong. There are plenty of low- and no-cost strategies you can use to motivate staff. Executives who want to improve performance will bring in "tough managers" or promote the most productive staff member as a "pacesetter". Yet, according to a study of more than 3,800 executives, coercive leaders and pacesetters actually reduce the conditions that lead to better performance. Leaders and managers who know when and how to coach, build consensus, or engage in partnerships are much more likely to enhance the climate for performance. (For those of you who are not executives, you're not off the hook: If you manage a staff, a team or a project, you're in a leadership position.)

According to the study, reported by Daniel Goleman in "Leadership that Gets Results" (Harvard Business Review, March-April 2000), leadership affects six key indicators of an organization's "working environment: its flexibility -- that is, how free employees feel to innovate unencumbered by red tape; their sense of responsibility to the organization; the level of standards that people set; the sense of accuracy about performance feedback and aptness of rewards; the clarity people have about mission and values; and finally, the level of commitment to a common purpose". Because organizational climate is highly correlated to organizational performance, if you see positive gains in one, you're likely to see them in the other. (By the way, for those of you who think this is all "touchy-feely" or "fuzzy" -- the organizational climate indicators are measurable, and the instruments used are valid and reliable.) The study looked at six primary leadership styles, and found that only two -- the coercive manager and the pacesetter, had a negative impact on organizational climate.

Though the study was not focused on planning, development and policy organizations, you would expect consistent (or even stronger) findings in our fields. We are part of the "knowledge economy." You can't bully or drag people into producing new ideas or solutions, or to being a better analyst.

You might look at this and think "oh, good leadership is just about being nice to people". However, it's far more complex. Coercive leaders can have a slightly positive impact on standards, and pacesetters on responsibility. As Goleman points out, no one leadership style is going to be the right one in every situation. Leaders in public service have to balance their concern for their co-workers with their responsibility to the communities they serve. As professionals whose work greatly affects the public, we have a responsibility to be efficient and effective. That's why learning about leadership and management is as important as learning about urban planning, community development or public policy.

Most planners have very little knowledge of or training in leadership and management. When I make presentations about leadership at the American Planning Association's National Conference, only a small fraction of the audience members say they had any training in leadership skills. Many planning schools either do not teach management and leadership skills, or undervalue it by making the topic just another elective. There's a sense, I think, that students will "just learn management skills on the job" (as one planning professor told me). You could say the same thing about statistics or economic analysis. (In fact, in some ways, it might be harder to learn leadership than to learn statistics or economics. You can predict how numbers will affect each other if you put them together. Harder to do with people)

Many planners undervalue leadership because, I believe, they hold onto old, incorrect assumptions about the subject. The first is that you can't lead without formal authority. This is a huge error that causes people to disenfranchise themselves. Another is that leaders have to be charismatic. They don't. (And if you don't believe me, read the work of Warren Bennis, who is to the field of leadership what Jane Jacobs, Andres Duany, and Frederick Law Olmsted are to planning.)

The biggest problem could be that planners think the problem is "the other person." There's an ad for a company that says it can improve public involvement in planning. The ad shows a bratty-looking kid in a suit at a birthday party. The message this sends me is that members of the public who won't listen to planners are childish or spoiled. I often hear planners say that the reason that a community won't accept their ideas is "that they need more education on _________." Rarely if ever do I hear a planner say something like "we didn't do a good enough job reaching out to the community or listening to their concerns." If you're not willing to consider how you appear to other people, or how your approach affects them, you'll do yourself and your organization a favor by spending the rest of your career in a cubicle.

A lot of planners don't see themselves as leaders, nor do they want to be "leaders." When I asked incoming students at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy if they wanted to influence leaders, they all shot up their hands. When I asked who wanted to "be a leader," no one raised a hand. Here's the irony: you have to be a leader to influence leaders.
Leadership is the art and craft of influencing the thinking and behavior of audiencesâ to achieve mutual goals. Leadership is not about what leaders do, but the relationship between leaders and audiences. If you're not interested in influencing audiences, what are you doing in the planning field?

Some planners are concerned about becoming more effective leaders, and take half-day to two-day courses on the subject. That's fine for learning certain leadership skills, but you can't learn everything you need to know about management and leadership in four hours or even four days. Leadership is not just a set of tasks -- it is a way of thinking and behaving. There are tools, but no tricks, to good leadership. Unlike econometrics or statistics, there are no real equations to learn. No one can accurately predict how any individual, group or community will react under dynamic conditions. Effective leaders in the field of planning, community development and policy are nuanced and reflective thinkers. They take risks but avoid gambling. They see their world and their situations in 360 degrees. They have an understanding of the past, present and possible future, but are always willing to learn and to question their assumptions. You can't learn all these things watching a PowerPoint slide in the back of a crowded room. Leadership, like good planning, has to be developed and nurtured.

Leonardo Vazquez

For more information:

The Leading Institute offers a challenging and effective leadership development program for urban planners called Leading from the Middle.  The next program begins in New Jersey in September 2010.  Learn more.

Note: This is an updated version of "How bad leadership spoils good planning," which appeared in Planetizen in 2006.

Enhancing public participation with diverse and divided audiences

Loud, angry people make it difficult to meet the goals of town hall meetings - finding out what community members think and want.  The actions of the loudest tend to intimidate anyone who has a different opinion from speaking up.  If you take others' silence as agreement, you might make decisions that unfairly favor one group over another.

If the others won't talk for fear of the yellers, here are some tips for getting their input:

• Develop with the audience workable ground rules for public participation.  If one of the rules is "everybody's voice is respected," the audience can agree that "no one gets booed or laughed at."  Enforce the rules during the meeting, or you will lose credibility with the audience.
  
• Provide everyone with index cards where they can write their comments and a box to put their comments in.  Make sure the box is covered or not clear, and has only a slot (that way audience members can't open up the box.)
• Arrange the room in small tables if you can.  Most people feel more comfortable speaking up from a table with their friends than in an auditorium format. When the yellers do appear, they are less likely to appear to be speaking for the whole audience.
• Invite people to share their input via email or phone calls before and after the session.  Organized activists will also dominate this type of communication.  But you're more likely to get other opinions.
• Set time limits on speakers during the public input portion of the meeting.  This will help prevent a yeller from running out the clock on a public meeting.
• Consider holding online public meetings.  These are more difficult to disrupt.  This should be done only in areas where most people are comfortable participating online.  It always should be an add-on to in person community meetings, not a replacement.
  
• If a yeller says anything that appears intended to intimidate participants from presenting other opinions, use that as an opportunity to defend the right of everyone to speak their minds.  This changes the subject from the yeller's concerns to the fact that the yeller is trying to disrupt the democratic process.  This might make some in the audience more comfortable about speaking up or sharing their thoughts later on.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Have a professional development tip you want to share? Share it with Leo


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For more information:
 The Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program offers courses in public participation and community outreach.  Among them are Planning in the Age of Direct Democracy.  For more information, and to see upcoming courses, or our course catalog, please visit the Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program.

Building effective relationships with the media

Developing effective relationships with the media is a good way to help your cause, organization or yourself. Being a favored source for newspaper reporters helped Robert Moses become the foremost figure in planning in 20th century New York.  "Rebuilding Communities," a landmark study by Avis Vidal, showed that funders were more likely to give support to community development corporations with greater visibility.

Here are some tips on building effective relationships with reporters.  (By the way, I was a newspaper reporter for five years and still write for online publications and magazines.)

First, ensure that you have the appropriate permissions to speak 'on-record' to the media.  Many governmental agencies and organizations, having been stung by bad publicity, limit who can talk to the media and in what capacity.

Reporters are like police officers; once they identify themselves professionally, everything you say or do can be used for their purposes.

Cultivate relationships with reporters who ask good or difficult questions.  This often demonstrates that they are attentive and have prepared for the interview.  Reporters who ask you for basic information that they can find on your website might be lazy or unconcerned with the story.

Reporters look for stories that have any of the following qualities: new information, unexpected information, clear impacts on their readers, and conflicts in which the issue and the opponents are easy to identify.  For example, most reporters wouldn't be interested in writing about a capital improvements plan.  But they would be interested in writing about new roads or street improvements that would reduce flooding.

Look for or create photo opportunities.  Stories that have 'art' (the journalistic term for photos and other images) are more likely to get published and to get better positions within the publication.

Unless you are a whistleblower, there is almost never any need to go "off-the-record."  If you decide to go off the record, understand what the reporter means by that term.  For some, off-the-record means they can use the information without naming you as a source.  (This is what other reporters call "on background.")  For other reporters, off-the-record means they can't use the information at all in a story.  In either case, you should expect that reporters will share what they know with editors, who are responsible for the content in their publications.

Good reporters are busy, especially in today's 24-hour news cycle. If you call a reporter, ask him or her if she is on "deadline."  If so, ask about a better time to call back.

If a reporter calls you, call back within 45 minutes.  Give the reporter all of your contact numbers, and be prepared to take calls at night or on weekends.  Be patient and pleasant.  A reporter might file a story at 5 pm, but has to respond to an editor's question at 9 pm.

"General assignment" reporters and those new to a beat are usually not experts in the subjects they cover.  The more useful information you can provide, the more valuable you become to those reporters.

Remember that the story belongs to the reporter and his or her editors.  They choose what goes in and stays out of the stories. If you want to control what goes into a publication, take out an ad.

When writing press releases, try to adopt the writing style of the publications you are trying to influence. In some cases, especially for shorter stories, reporters may simply lift or slightly revise what you wrote.

If you want to be quoted, speak in short sentences and a little more slowly.  Most quotations in newspaper and magazine stories are only a sentence or two long.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Where to learn more about strategic communications:
The Leading Institute's Leading from the Middle program
 

If you have a professional development tip you would like to share, please send it to Leo at vazquezl@rutgers.edu

Conference networking tips

Whether you're a gregarious extrovert or a shy introvert, the tips below can help you get the maximum benefit from a conference.

Engaging and disengaging individuals

Most professionals go to conferences to meet other professionals.  So it's perfectly appropriate to go over to someone and introduce yourself.  Make sure that the person is not otherwise engaged in a tight conversation or other activity.

You don't need a "line."  Just introduce yourself, say what you do and where, and then ask the people you talk to their names, what they do, and where they work (or used to work.)

Aim to spend more time listening and asking questions than talking.  Most people love talking about themselves.  Everyone appreciates being listened to.

Asking "how," "why" and questions asking for clarification are good ways to keep your audience engaged.

If you're not interested to someone, you can quickly excuse yourself by saying something like, "It was a pleasure to meet you," and walk away from the conversation.  If you're not comfortable being so direct, you can pretend to have a phone call or urgent message.

Don't worry if someone excuses him or herself after a few minutes.  He or she may have different networking goals than you.

Aim to get at least five business cards per day of the conference.  On the back of each one, write a note to remind you when and where you met the person and a word that indicates what you talked about.

Ideally, you would follow up with everyone you met.  At least follow up within a week with those people who you would most like to meet or engage later on.

When talking to someone for the first few minutes, avoid trying to "sell" your organization, services or program.  Work to make the person feel comfortable with you.  If the person gives you his or her card, you're welcome to follow up. 

Increasing your visibility

Do you remember the person who sat in the back of the room during the presentation and asked no questions?  Neither does anybody else.  Make yourself more visible by asking questions or asking a speaker to add to an earlier comment that he or she made.

Disagreeing directly with the speaker, or adding a tangential comment, can make you look pushy or arrogant.

Feel free to introduce yourself to the speaker(s) at the end of the session.  In most planning and related professional conferences, the majority of presenters do not get paid.  Many are themselves looking to increase their own visibility or awareness of their ideas. 

Special tips for networking at mealtimes

If you came with colleagues or associates, sit at different tables.  You don't need to network with your friends or co-workers.

If you see empty seats at a table, ask if you can join the group.  When there is an appropriate opportunity, engage the people closest to you.

Avoid ordering or eating long pastas (spaghetti, linguini, etc.) or any food with a lot of sauce.  It could get sloppy, which could distract your audience.

Avoid a table where everybody sitting there is "huddling."  Those people have probably closed the networking circle and you would find it difficult to enter without seeming pushy.  On the other hand, if someone at the table isn't part of the huddle, he or she would probably welcome some conversation. 

Chain networking
Chain networking is the practice of networking with people who are networking with people you already know.  It works best if you go to the conference with friends or co-workers, or already know people at the conference.

If you see that your colleague is talking with someone, feel free to join the group.  Introduce yourself by your affiliation with your colleague.  This will make the other person more comfortable in speaking with you.

If your colleague joins you while you're networking, make the introductions.    

Networking with groups
When three or more people talk together, they tend to form groups.  Read their body language to determine if you should try to join them.

If they form a closed circle (facing one another, backs to rest of the room), avoid trying to join them.  You might be perceived as an interloper.

If you are on good terms with someone in a closed circle, you can probably enter it comfortably.

If the circle is more open, you can try to enter it casually.  For example, you can listen from the side, and at an appropriate moment say something like "that's an interesting point.  Why do you think that?" 

Networking around conference sessions

If you don't need the continuing education credits, or aren't interested in any of the sessions, hang around the hallways outside the session rooms.  You'll probably find others like you there.

Avoid standing in the refreshment line during the coffee breaks.  Lines usually give you an opportunity to network with only two people at a time. 

If you're looking for a job 
Fight the urge to ask the person you just met if there are jobs available at his or her workplace.  Instead, ask if there is someone you could follow up with to 'learn more about' the person's office.

In this economy, it's ok to let someone know that you're in between jobs.  It's better to say your position was cut, or you were one of several laid off.  If that's not the case, or you don't want to say any of those things, call yourself an independent consultant.

--Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP

Do you have a professional development tip you would like to share?  Have a question that you would like to see answered here?  Please send it to Leo at vazquezl@rutgers.edu