Last week, I attended the Michigan Local Government Manager’s Association annual winter conference. This is a group of professional city, county, township managers, who are appointed by an elected governing body to manage a local government entity. See “Council-Manager Form of Government” for more information. Local government managers are some of my favorite leaders to work with. They are dedicated, hard working, and have the hardest job in the world (but rarely believe me when I tell them that!). They must balance all the things that leaders in the corporate world balance, but with an elected council, competing interests, shrinking budgets and a very public presence to deal with.

I was reminded while I was there of their dedication to public service in every conversation we had – the fact that I am a “gate crasher” (as a “vendor”) at these meetings doesn’t seem to phase them. I always feel welcomed and included. Getting a chance to go to dinner with these people or chat over a drink is always a joy for me; it’s an opportunity to learn more, informally, about what they do, how they do it, why they do it. Their welcoming attitude has a lot to do with their dedication to public service, I believe.

Since we often hear that “government could learn a lot from business” – I’d like to propose that “business leaders could learn a lot from local goverment leaders”, especially in terms of dedication to service.

These local government leaders subscribe to a great code of ethics.

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