What is the difference between leader and politicians

Bad managers never admit their own responsibility in creating this environment, and instead start looking — with ever increasing paranoia — to the internal politics of their organization for someone else to blame, empowering bootlickers and creating drama and conflict where none ever needed to be. It is a miserable situation indeed for everyone involved. When this happens in the private sector, the problem is largely self-correcting — productivity suffers, and bad leaders either get replaced or companies fold.

There had been signs that not all was healthy between the Reno City Council members and the professionals they are supposed to oversee and direct. The City Council is non-partisan, but there are certainly factions and alliances. When Thomas was applying for a position with the Regional Transportation Commission board, Brekhus tried to tank his efforts by sending a letter to his new prospective employer and hinting that he was unethical for taking that job.

The RTC board ignored Brekhus and hired him anyway. Newby and Thomas could have simply quit their jobs with a standard two week notice, and left the council to figure everything out without them. Instead, they are sticking around for several more months to ensure a smooth transition and allow time for the City Council to select a qualified replacement. Now the city has to waste time contemplating hiring consultants to do what we already have perfectly capable people on the payroll to do.

Oh, no — heaven forfend you actually get to know your own employees! One of the disconnects between getting elected and successfully leading is loyalty. Politicians are notoriously disloyal, even to their own purported principles, as the pursuit of power justifies any broken promise or a knife in any back. Good leaders, on the other hand, understand that loyalty to their employees will make their organization stronger in both the short and long term. This does not mean blind loyalty — bad employees must be disciplined or fired for the sake of everyone else who has to carry the freight of the bad apple.

But it means you critique in private and praise in public. It means you ensure people feel valued and appreciated. It means you work to address and correct any defects in their job performance, that you recognize hard work and successes with advancement and increased responsibility, and promote based on merit, not longevity or office politics. By contrast, any advice given to ministers in the civil service is entirely private and even exempt from freedom of information requests.

While the chair guides the organisation politically, it is my role to lead officials to fulfil the agenda politicians have charged us with. But there are important differences: the LGA is a cross-party organisation which means the potency of a single party political message is sometimes diluted. The need for the chairman and the chief executive to be seen as even-handed in such a complex political relationship is absolute. I may work closely with the chairman and group leaders but, ultimately, I am accountable to our members — local authorities — for the work we do on their behalf.

There is more clarity in the demarcation between these two roles than there often is in local government. The chair is accountable to the public and national politicians; the chief executive to Whitehall and councils.

Of course there are common themes across all these roles. As a local government chief executive or senior civil servant there is a need to understand not just the political environment, but also financial and geographical context you're operating in.

A core requirement for politicians and officials is a shared vision for the future of an organisation. The most successful councils, departments and organisations have equally strong political and managerial leadership, working in harmony, and with a shared ambition.

Carolyn Downs is the chief executive of the Local Government Association. Want your say? Email us at public. Join the Public Leaders Network for more comment, analysis and job opportunities , direct to your inbox.

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