What is community leadership?

Councillors are in key positions to make things happen but need both the skills and motivation to succeed. The Local Government Association (LGA) in its publication 'Powerpack, using the new power to promote wellbeing' suggests there are at least eight characteristics of effective community leaders:

Characteristics of effective community leaders

Councillors will face a real challenge in balancing the various elements of their community leadership role. In particular, they will need to think carefully about the meaning of leadership. Leadership in this context does not mean taking centre stage – it is about creating the right environment for others to act. It is less directing and controlling, more stimulating, enabling and empowering. Councillors will need to develop the requisite skills and capacity to do this effectively.

In shire areas, county and district councillors will need to explore their respective roles – while at the same time, acknowledging the important role of parish and town councils and councillors. The growth in the number of organisations and agencies active at a local level has made the task of community leadership more difficult, and at the same time, more important. If the priority is to enable local authorities to identify and meet their own needs, the concept of community leadership has to be taken seriously. Councillors have to demonstrate their ability to fulfil that leadership role while also convincing their local partners that there is something in it for them.

Community leadership includes more than the services and functions delivered by the local council. The focus of community leadership has to be the whole gamut of public services delivered locally together with the contribution and impact of the private, voluntary and community sectors.

It is not just about the council's vision for the locality, it has to be framed around a shared vision – and backed up by a shared commitment to delivering and supporting the implementation of that vision. This really is about partnership working.

The task of making difficult decisions – for example, on issues where consensus cannot be reached – lies with councillors and cannot be easily ignored. This responsibility goes to the heart of the community leadership role.

The Local Government Improvement Programme (LGIP) benchmark offers core elements required for effective community leadership, which includes the following:

• constitutional arrangements and scrutiny
• ethics, standards and conduct
• customer and citizen focus
• communication
• consultation and participation

Using the LGIP benchmark, councils undergo a week-long review of their performance and activities.

From the results of these reviews the LGIP team has concluded:

"We know that councils are most effective, when the political and managerial leadership focus their energies on engaging residents and partners in developing a common understanding of the future needs for their area..." For a further and in-depth analogy, please see: 'A year in focus, IDeA 2000'.

The report continued:

 "It is clear from the reviews that senior officers and members sitting in meetings with each other cannot drive change. It requires them to get out and about, and engage with the people who deliver change at the front line."

In essence, the LGIP reviews have found that effective community leadership includes: establishing good working relationships; collective focus; genuine engagement; listening to many voices; visioning; clarity of expression; making time for others; driving change; and much more. Thinking about how to simultaneously deploy all of the above aspects are critical to long-term success in a community leader role.