Facilitative Leadership in Local Government: Lessons from Successful Mayors and Chairpersons (Jossey Bass Public Administration Series)

How will increasingly diverse cities and counties strengthen their political leadership for the 1990s and beyond? How can mayors and other officials become effective leaders in government structures that deny them executive power and diffuse their political leadership? What kind of leadership will this be and what impact will it have? Facilitative Leadership in Local Government shows how officials can reach beyond the structural limitations of their position and work with the constraints of fragmented power to build strong and effective government.

In this book, James H. Svara and expert contributors offer local government officials and those that work with them a guide to a successful new model of leadership--facilitative leadership. The facilitative leader accomplishes objectives by enhancing the efforts of others. Rather than seeking power for themselves, facilitative mayors or chairpersons seek to empower the city council and the city manager by stressing collaboration and collective leadership among all parties so that all can work effectively together.

JAMES H. SVARA is director of the public administration program at North Carolina State University. He is author of A Survey of America's City Councils: Continuity and Change and Official Leadership in the City: Patterns of Conflict and Cooperation and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Administration and the National Civic Review.