An overview of leadership in public administration and some of the challenges

1. Leadership in Public Administration Beverly A. Nicholson, MBA, MPA Thomas Nelson Community College Hampton, VA 1

2. Without using reference materials, students will be able to define (list) five primary characteristics of leadership as they relate to public administration Objective 2

3. Definitions of Leadership Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter F. Drucker Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do what you want done because he wants to do it. Dwight Eisenhower 3

4. The exercise of authority, whether formal or informal, in directing and coordinating the work of others (Schafritz, 2004, p. 175) Leadership Defined in Public Administration 4

5. Controls that limit risk-taking Accountability to the public Follows lots of rules Checks and balances on authority Focuses on principles of fairness Reference: Cropf, 2008 5 Public Leadership

6. 6 Summary Includes demands from many stakeholders Requires accountability Promotes equity

7. A mother crab criticized her son for walking sideways, whereupon the son asked his mother to show him how to walk straight. Of course the mother crab was unable to walk any straighter than her son, and soon apologized for criticizing what she herself was guilty of too. Moral: lead by example not by words Aesop’s Fable: The Crab and His Mother 7 Crab (Rowley, Creative Commons, 2009)

8. Cropf, R. A. (2008). American public administration: public service for the twenty-first century. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. [Photograph of Peter Rowley]. (October 5, 2009). Creative Commons, flickr from Yahoo, Thailand, Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/haemengine/3982256034/?reg=1&src=sharev3 Shafrtiz, J. M. (2004). The dictionary of public policy and administration. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. References 8