Public Leadership American Style: And the Oscar Goes to…
August 3, 2020
By Katherine Willoughby, Golembiewski Professor of Public Administration at the University of Georgia
Like many during the pandemic, my family has had plenty of time to be together. Early on, we staked out workstations around the house, reviewed The Rules, and applied ourselves to necessary tasks. The Rules (Pride of Place—Keep work and sleep areas neat and clean, and; Pride of Person—No working in public spaces in your pajamas) have helped keep the peace, along with Family Movie Night, something we agreed on as a distraction, learning experience, and challenge. Whose movie would be most Oscar-worthy?
Having wrapped up spring semester at the University of Georgia, teaching Public Management in a Disrupted State to MPA students, and completing research about disaster management and our intergovernmental system, I mentally filed through movie favorites as a way of thinking about public leadership in a time of crisis. John Kamensky, Senior Fellow at the IBM Center for The Business of Government posits that characteristics important for private sector leadership—decisiveness, directive, and a risk taker—are inappropriate for public ones. Having studied government leaders for decades, Kamensky suggests characteristics vital to success that include: self-awareness, authenticity, strong fitness for the job (reputation); highly ethical; practiced listener and solicitor of others’ views and knowledge; effective communicator, and optimistic.
Obviously, public leaders must be adept at handling crises. Often multiple and different disasters are occurring concurrently or consecutively. Crisis management experts, Arjen Boin and Paul 't Hart explain that modern crises are complex, involve numerous entities and individuals, and are difficult, in fact impossible, for one person to manage alone. To be successful, public leaders must anticipate possible (and impossible) disasters, consider other stakeholders and cooperative ventures necessary for response, and remain realistic in communications during crises about remediation efforts and results. In times of crisis, public leaders must scan the environment for solutions to problems, be nimble in making decisions, take deliberative actions, learn from these efforts, and collaborate with others along the way.
What movies might relay all of this? One that came to mind for messaging how not to lead is the 1957 movie directed by Elia Kazan, “A Face in the Crowd.” This movie is about an Arkansas drifter, “Lonesome” Rhodes, who is interviewed by a journalist/ingénue, for the local radio station. Rhodes sings from jail, where he is serving time, to rural Arkansans across the state. From such a beginning, he is propelled into stardom. He gains his own radio show, climbs the ladder of fame, in television and as a political influencer, winning adoring followers all along the way.
To his fans, Rhodes is charismatic, with a folksy appeal; to those close to him, he is critical, cruel, and contemptuous. At the height of his popularity and influence, his real distain for essentially everyone, especially his fans, is revealed in his own words, live on TV. By the end, his only audience is an applause machine while his career takes an elevator to the ground floor. The film delivers a lesson, familiar to many, about faulty leadership that results in downfall.
Public leadership in times of crisis, especially now, also made me think about the movie, “Groundhog Day”, directed in 1993 by Harold Ramis. In this film, a TV weatherman, Phil Connors, along with his producer travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the Groundhog Day celebration. Connors is contemptuous of the public, especially the small-town residents who he views as country bumpkins. When a blizzard hits the town, a storm the weatherman predicted would bypass the area, a time loop captures Connors who from then on wakes up every day to the same February 2nd.
Connors initially considers his circumstances a curse. Realizing he will suffer no consequences from any of his actions as yesterday’s are wiped clean every morning, he indulges in self-destructive behaviors as well as damaging ones against others. With time, though, Connors is convinced his predicament is heaven sent, offering him the chance to do good. He spends the rest of the movie channeling continuous improvement for himself and others. Connors learns to play the piano, speak French, and carve ice sculptures, as well as enhance his own weather reporting skills. While he rescues residents from various calamities along the way, he is crestfallen when unable to prevent the death of a homeless man. In the end, Connors secures the adoration of town residents and determines to remain in the town he now cares for with his true love.
The actions of Connors—waking up day after day to the same circumstances, determining to “do good”, learning, and taking deliberative actions—reminded me of the many public leaders today similarly engaged in fighting COVID-19. Every community wakes up day after day to concerning news—the virus continues to spread, with an ebb and flow of both contracting cases and death. Vital to managing through this crisis, many public leaders are choosing to “do good” and navigate the chaos by taking actions, learning, and promoting collaboration for community benefit.
For example, in recent research about local government leaders’ efforts in managing through COVID-19, my colleagues and I find them to exhibit the values of nimble governance that calls for concern of people over process, operational E-systems over paper ones; collaborative not adversarial problem-solving, and agile response in the face of lackluster or no plans.
For instance, Lone Tree, Colorado’s assistant city manager described engaging new communication strategies with employees—setting deadlines, promoting “doable” actions, supporting experimentation, and praising their adaptable behaviors. He emphasized the need to motivate by “redirecting [employee] passion instead of shutting down ideas.” In the current crisis, the procurement manager for Orange County, Florida, channeled agility when tasked with developing and implementing a telework program over a weekend, converting the government’s paper procurement system into a virtual one almost overnight. “We will never go back [to paper],” she said.
Such examples abound. It should be no surprise then, that my choice for awarding the Oscar for public leadership is easy. “Groundhog Day” trumps “A Face in the Crowd”. Rest assured—many public leaders are giving Oscar-worthy performances every day.