Employees will only embrace the change and follow the process if they feel empowered. This takes deft negotiation and facilitation on the part of the public leader. Accordingly, the leader must engage and communicate with skeptical staff while developing clarity, strengthening the team, and communicating the organization’s vision. These skills were once required of executive staff only, but all public leaders will need to break free and encourage others to break free of the comfort zone and “move forward in a new direction” where these skills are a part of everyday work life (Edmonds, 2011, p. 35). To build collaboration, the public manager must also be able to understand people’s work and work style (Shulman, 2010). As Shulman (2010) points out, in the for-profit world, leaders can demand and mandate changes from the top, but in the public sector where workers often have strong views, opinions and commitment levels, leaders must take the time to understand and respect others’ perspectives and ideas, or change processes can be sabotaged from within. Public managers must have strong skill in persuasion and presenting a “compelling vision” to staff members (Shulman, 2010, p. 24). A public leader with proficient collaboration skills will gain more respect from staff than if he or she has expertise in a certain skill
Employees will only embrace the change and follow the process if they feel empowered. This takes deft negotiation and facilitation on the part of the public leader. Accordingly, the leader must engage and communicate with skeptical staff while developing clarity, strengthening the team, and communicating the organization’s vision. These skills were once required of executive staff only, but all public leaders will need to break free and encourage others to break free of the comfort zone and “move forward in a new direction” where these skills are a part of everyday work life (Edmonds, 2011, p. 35). To build collaboration, the public manager must also be able to understand people’s work and work style (Shulman, 2010). As Shulman (2010) points out, in the for-profit world, leaders can demand and mandate changes from the top, but in the public sector where workers often have strong views, opinions and commitment levels, leaders must take the time to understand and respect others’ perspectives and ideas, or change processes can be sabotaged from within. Public managers must have strong skill in persuasion and presenting a “compelling vision” to staff members (Shulman, 2010, p. 24). A public leader with proficient collaboration skills will gain more respect from staff than if he or she has expertise in a certain skill