A Thoughtful Approach to Springfield’s City Manager Search: Priorities for Our Future
A Thoughtful Approach to Springfield’s City Manager Search: Priorities for Our Future
As President and CEO of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, I represent a board and staff team serving over 1,500 member businesses employing more than 100,000 individuals across diverse sectors. The local business community has a vested interest in Springfield’s future, particularly the selection of our next City Manager. This critical decision could unlock economic opportunities and address key challenges, and I’d like to share priorities based on feedback from business and community leaders.
The Skills for Success: What Springfield Needs in a City Manager
Strong personal leadership qualities like vision, humility and boldness are necessary for any leader’s success. In addition to these qualities, the next Springfield City Manager must possess four essential skills to lead successfully:
- Intentional Board Management Strategy: Every chief executive must have an intentional approach to cultivating relationships with board members. City councils - like all boards - lead best when they are heard, guided well and led effectively by their chief executive. The final candidate for this role should prioritize cultivating trust with and among City Council members. He or she should have a plan and strategy to learn what each Council member needs and wants most, identify what success looks like to them, and strive to find common ground. These priorities are foundational to success in our council-manager form of government.
- Proactive Partnership Mindset: Prioritizing relationships between the City Manager and peer community partners, and proactive efforts to create and maintain these relationships is an important key to success. In Springfield, we prioritize close, collaborative working relationships that give us a tangible advantage when we are partnering as we should. To be effective in Springfield, a City Manager must plan together with partners and work to understand and respect others’ roles in the partnership. In fact, the goal should be to work with partners early on projects, solutions and plans (ideally months or years ahead of action) so that all involved have an authentic stake in the outcome and know how to support collective success.
- Customer Service Excellence: In Springfield, our customers - whether businesses, developers or residents - are our investors. Their confidence in our city’s ability to respond to their needs is vital for continued growth. Business customers put their capital at risk in a way that brings tremendous advantages and value to our city. However, the environment for that investment is highly competitive, and those investors can and do choose other places to invest. The City Manager must foster a top-to-bottom culture of responsive and reliable service, where city staff work creatively and proactively to solve problems and support investments.
- Empowering Staff and Building Accountability: The City Manager must be a strong culture-builder, empowering city staff to make decisions quickly. To that end, the next City Manager needs to set high expectations, support staff in their commitment to meet and exceed those expectations and back them up when necessary. The City Manager will also need to establish clear accountability measures that ensure those expectations are consistently met, addressing mismanagement or failures when they occur.
Strengthening the Search Process: Taking the Time to Get It Right
While urgency is understandable, a thorough search is paramount. A new mayor and potentially new council members will be elected in April. Strong City Manager candidates may want clarity on City Council’s makeup before committing. The community supports city leaders taking the necessary time to find the right fit.
This is a pivotal moment for Springfield. To achieve our goals, we need a City Manager who is a collaborative leader, fosters a strong internal culture, prioritizes customer service and embraces accountability. As the voice of business in our community, the Springfield Chamber is committed to working with our partners and City Council in this crucial search.
Matt Morrow
President
Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce
