City Manager Search Advisory Task Force - July 19, 2017
City Manager Search Advisory Task Force Regular Meeting of the City Manager Search Advisory Task Force - Meeting will take place in the Assembly Room, Room 130
CITY MANAGER SEARCH ADVISORY TASK FORCE REGULAR MEETING Wednesday, July 19, 2017 2:00 p.m. Austin Energy Headquarters Town Lake Center – Assembly Room, Room 130 721 Barton Springs Austin, Texas 78704 TASK FORCE MEMBERS: Laura Huffman, Chair Saundra Kirk, Vice Chair Claudia Conner Susan Hambright Perla Cavazos Julio Gonzalez Altamirano Bill Spelman Channy Soeur Walter Muse Bobby Inman Jan Lehman AGENDA CALL TO ORDER 1. CITIZENS COMMUNICATION: GENERAL (Individuals will each be allowed 3 minutes to address the Task Force.) 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JULY 12, 2017 TASK FORCE MEETING 3. NEW BUSINESS Discussion and possible action regarding the following: a) Discussion and updates on City Manager Recruitment Process and feedback/survey input. b) Review, discussion and approval of draft City Manager profile. ADJOURNMENT The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. Meeting locations are planned with wheelchair access. If requiring Sign Language Interpreters or alternative formats, please give notice at least 2 days (48 hours) before the meeting date. Please call Sonya Alexander-Harry at Human Resources Department, at 512-974-3228, for additional information; TTY users route through Relay Texas at 711. For more information on the City Manager Search Advisory Task Force, please contact Sonya Alexander-Harry at 512-974-3228.
CITY MANAGER SEARCH ADVISORY TASK FORCE REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, July 19, 2017 The City Manager Search Advisory Task Force convened in a regular meeting on Wednesday, July 19, 2017 at Town Lake Center, Austin Energy Headquarters, 721 Barton Springs, Austin, TX 78704. Chair Laura Huffman called the Task Force meeting to order at 2:07 p.m. Board Members in Attendance: Laura Huffman (Chair), Saundra Kirk (Vice Chair), Claudia Conner, Perla Cavazos, Julio Gonzalez Altamirano, Bill Spellman, Channy Soeur, Walter Muse, Jan Lehman, Susan Hambright, and Admiral Bobby Inman. Staff in Attendance: Joya Hayes, Debbie Maynor, Rodney Crain, Lee Crawford, Trinh Bartlett, Lara Foss, Sonya Alexander-Harry, Cindy Henson, Rod Sigler, Gary Luedecke, Daniel Murphy. Steve Newton and Erin Carbrey from Russell Reynold Associates were in attendance. 1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Recommendation by Task Force Chair Laura Huffman to approve the minutes for the July 12, 2017 City Manager Search Advisory Task Force Meeting was approved on Task Force Member Admiral Bobby Inman’s motion with Task Force Member Susan Hambright second on a 8-0 vote. Task Force Members Jan Lehman, Bill Spelman and Walter Muse were absent at the time of the vote of approval. 2. CITIZENS COMMUNICATION: GENERAL No one signed up to speak. 3. NEW BUSINESS a) Discussion and updates on City Manager Recruitment Process and Feedback/survey input. Russell Reynolds Associates Representative Steve Newton gave an update on the City Manager Recruitment Process, the Culture Analyst™ Report and answered questions from the Task Force. He agreed to bring back Synthesized Feedback to the next Task Force Meeting to review and approve. A recommendation to approve the Culture Analyst™ Report was approved on Task Force Member Admiral Bobby Inman’s motion with Task Force Member Jan Lehman’s second on an 11-0 vote. b) Review, discussion and approval of draft City Manager profile. Russell Reynolds Associates Representative Steve Newton reviewed and discussed the draft City Manager Profile and answered questions from the Task Force. A recommendation to approve the draft City Manager Profile was approved on Task Force Member Bill Spelman’s motion with Task Force Member Jan Lehman’s second on an 11-0 vote. 4. ADJOURN Task Force Member Walter Muse motioned to adjourn the meeting. Task Force Member Admiral Bobby Inman seconded on an 11-0 vote. The Task Force Meeting was adjourned at 3:12 p.m. The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal …
Private and ConfidentialCulture Analyst™ReportThe City of Austin GovernmentJuly 2017Steve NewtonStacey Shapiro, Ph.D. Jacob Martin, Ph.D. Private and Confidential2Executive summaryCulture strength: The City of Austin (COA) does not have a particularly strong culture. Scores are lower than what we typically see across the macro factors: Performance and discipline: COAdesires a stronger culture across all of the macro factors in the future. Respondents indicated a particular desire for an increased emphasis on performance and discipline. Talent management and pay: The survey and open-ended responses highlight grievances in talent management processes. Many cite the new MCS rules that inhibit pay for performance and also prevent employees from being fired. The lack of pay for performance is viewed to be a serious hindrance for attracting and retaining top talent, particularly as Austin’s cost of living continues to rise. This is also captured in the desire for more of an orientation towards training and development. Integrity: There are also some concerns around discipline and the notion of integrity. Participants desire a culture that holds people accountable for upholding the values and rules set forth by the COA. The lack of structure around firing under-performing or unethical employees is seen as the chief cause of this problem.Openness: COA’s desired culture is one that is more open and inclusive. Participants would like city leaders, such as City Council members and other key stakeholders, to be more transparent in decision making and strategy. There is also a call to have a stronger focus on multiculturalism and diversity. Private and Confidential3Table of contentsExecutive summary2Methodology4Current and desired culture6Gaps / implications analysis15Discipline 17Openness 19Strategic Growth Orientation21Performance Orientation23Relationships 25Appendix27 Private and Confidential4Our methodologyThe Culture Analyst™ survey was completed throughout June, 2017by 286* respondents-Participation rate: 34%Individuals were asked to consider the organizational culture in the COA Government and provide their responses in relation to the current and desired organizational cultureResponses were reported on a scale ranging from 1 to 5, where:Averages were calculated for each of the micro factors and macro factors, as well as an overall culture strength measureThis report presents the current and desired culture as described by participants1 Very Inaccurate2 Moderately Inaccurate3 Neither Accurate nor Inaccurate4 Moderately Accurate5 Very Accurate* Additional responses included to reflect partially-answered surveys Private and Confidential5Culture Analyst™ FactorsCulture AnalystTM provides a model, a method and a language for objectively evaluating culture in the context of executive search, succession planning or organizational change.The rigor involved in day-to-day …
Candidate Profile City of Austin City Manager Private and Confidential Candidate Profile July 19, 2017 Ref: City ManagerCity of Austin 1 of 5 City of Austin Austin is the state capital of Texas and is the fastest growing metro city of its size. With a population of more than 947,000, Austin is the fourth largest city in Texas and the eleventh largest city in the United States. Home to a substantial regional concentration of headquarters/regional offices for Fortune 500 (Amazon.com, Dell, Google, and Whole Foods to name a few), the University of Texas at Austin, a vibrant music scene, eclectic mix of award-winning restaurants, and over 250 parks, Austin is consistently ranked as the number one “Most Popular Place to Live.” Since 2011, Austin has received more than 50 local and national rankings in categories such as economic growth, environmental leadership, education, quality of life, and real estate. Most recently, Austin was named by Forbes as a Top 10 Employer for 2017 and the highest-ranking employer in the government services sector. As a result of its tremendous success, Austin has experienced challenges that the next City Manager will need to address. In particular, the rapid growth of the city has taxed housing, transportation, infrastructure, affordability, and equity, in ways that a new innovative approach will seek to solve. For more information about the 2017 State of Austin City, please visit http://www.mayoradler.com/2017-state-of-the-city-address-the-spirit-of-austin/ Governance Structure The City of Austin has a Council-Manager form of government whereby the elected City Council sets policy objectives and the City Manager ensures they are carried out and administered effectively. The City Manager also serves as a trusted advisor to the Mayor and City Council. Under the November 6, 2012, voter-approved charter amendment, Council Members are no longer elected citywide. During the 2014 election, the Mayor was elected citywide, and the other 10 Council Members were elected by residents from geographic districts. City Manager Search Process The selection of Austin’s next City Manager will be the most important decision the Mayor and the City Council make in the coming months. The success of the 10-1 council system depends on a productive and trusting partnership with the City Manager and creates the most basic building block of successful policymaking and implementation. Candidate Profile July 19, 2017 Ref: City ManagerCity of Austin 2 of 5 In recognition of the importance of conducting a transparent selection process, Council created the …
DRAFT July 19th, 2017 Dear Council Member Casar, Earlier today, the City Manager Search Advisory Task Force adopted a profile recommendation at its final scheduled meeting. The profile recommendation forwarded to City Council affords the City’s executive search firm the flexibility to provide qualified City Manager candidates for in‐depth review by you and your colleagues. Thanks to the leadership of our Chair and Vice Chair, the Task Force worked collaboratively and effectively to meet the tasks required by Council in a timely fashion. Our profile recommendation is worthy of Council’s support. As the Task Force’s work unfolded, several unexpected potential risks in the existing process have become clearer. In the sections below, I specify these risks, as well as some suggestions for ameliorating their potential negative impact in the remaining City Manager process. Black Boxes & Bad Hires Figure 1. City Manager Search & Selection Process In its current form, the remaining City Manager search & selection process includes five potentially risky decisions. These are risky choices because their mishandling could lead to substantial misjudgment about the management aptitude of candidates, their qualifications to meet the critical challenges identified by the public, or their fit with Austin’s civic values. DRAFT Figure 1 outlines the remaining City Manager search process. Each dot represents an individual candidate. Each collection of “candidates” (dots) is a phase of filtering in the remaining process. The squares represent the moment in the remaining process chronology were risk is concentrated. The first major risk precedes the actual filtering. This initial risk is the gap between the search firm’s expertise in identifying general management aptitude (e.g. team leadership, visioning, talent retention) for large organizations and the community’s desire for issue‐specific skills (e.g. transportation, IT, code enforcement, capital project oversight). During Task Force discussions, a range from 100 to 200 individuals has been mentioned as the full theoretical potential pool of qualified candidates for the Austin City Manager position. The search firm’s internal catalogue of the full recruitment pool may excessively tilt towards strong generalists with murky track‐records on the specific issues prioritized by community input. Second, the method by which the search firm will select individuals for outreach from its self‐identified pool is fully within their discretion. They might be culling from an already existing list of leading public sector managers, or using a highly‐customized research process to identify new prospects that precisely fit profile, or something altogether …
CITY MANAGER SEARCH ADVISORY TASK FORCE REGULAR MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, July 12, 2017 The City Manager Search Advisory Task Force convened in a regular meeting on Wednesday, July 12, 2017 at Town Lake Center, Austin Energy Headquarter, 721 Barton Springs, Austin, TX 78704. Chair Laura Huffman called the Task Force meeting to order at 2:12 p.m. Board Members in Attendance: Laura Huffman (Chair), Saundra Kirk (Vice Chair), Claudia Conner, Perla Cavazos (Attended via conference call), Julio Gonzalez Altamirano, Bill Spellman, Channy Soeur, Walter Muse, Jan Lehman, Admiral Bobby Inman. Susan Hambright was absent. Staff in Attendance: Ray Baray, Debbie Maynor, Rodney Crain, Lee Crawford, Trinh Bartlett, Lara Foss, Sonya Alexander-Harry, Cindy Henson, Rod Sigler, Gary Luedecke, Daniel Murphy. Steve Newton from Russell Reynold Associates was in attendance. 1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Recommendation by Task Force Chair Laura Huffman to approve the minutes for the June 28, 2017 City Manager Search Advisory Task Force Meeting was approved on Task Force Member Admiral Bobby Inman’s motion with Task Force Member Bill Spelman’s second on a 8-0 vote. Task Force Members Claudia Conner, Jan Lehman and Susan Hambright were absent at the time of the vote of approval. 2. CITIZENS COMMUNICATION: GENERAL No one signed up to speak. 3. NEW BUSINESS a) Russell Reynolds Associates Representative Steve Newton gave an update on the City Manager Recruitment Process, the Culture Advisory Management Survey and answered questions from the Task Force. b) Russell Reynolds Associates Representative Steve Newton discussed, reviewed and took feedback from the Task Force on the draft City Manager Profile he provided. He will bring a revised draft to the next meeting for the Task Force to review and approve. 4. ADJOURN Task Force Member Admiral Bobby Inman motioned to adjourn the meeting. Task Force Member Walter seconded on a 10-0 vote. Task Force Member Susan Hambright was absent. The Task Force Meeting was adjourned at 3:58 p.m. The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. Meeting locations are planned with wheelchair access. If requiring Sign Language Interpreters or alternative formats, please give notice at least 2 days (48 hours) before the meeting date. Please call Sonya Alexander-Harry at Human Resources Department, at 512-974-3228, for additional information; TTY users route through Relay Texas at 711. For more information on the City Manager Search Advisory …
Private and ConfidentialLeadership SpanMarch 2017 Private and Confidential2Confidence in leaders is fallingas the era of constant change continuesDisruptive factors are already defining the 21stcentury economy, and organizations struggle to predict how future changes will impact leadership teams. $$$$$50%$560%$770%$980%$1190%$13100%$15% reporting some degree of confidenceBillions US$Confidence in leadership Annual spending onleadership19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009201020122011Percentage of Organizations Experiencing Significant ChangePercentage of Executives Expecting Frequency of Change to Increase“No other factor plays a bigger role in determining the fate of organizations than the quality of their leaders.”-Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, CEO of Hogan Assessment SystemsSources: Harris Interactive; Kaiser RB, Curphy G. Leadership development: The failure of an industry and the opportunity for consulting psychologists. Consulting Psychology Journal; CEB research; RRA analysis.91%73% Private and Confidential3Many legacy leadership evaluations fall short of recent demandsOrganizations have responded to new leadership imperatives by creating new roles, adapting cultures, and seeking new experiences for top C-suite executives. Despite these solutions, too many still struggle to predict leadership potential.Questions Left Unanswered by Current Approaches to Leadership Assessment1)Which competencies are less or more relevant for tomorrow’s challenges?2)What type of leaders will prove most adaptable in navigating disruption?3)Which competencies are more relevant for the C-suite?4)How can CEOs and Boards identify leaders who can thrive andendure in the face of future uncertainty?Characteristics of Existing Leadership Evaluation MechanismsNotTailored for SeniorityBuiltDecadesAgoStaticView of LeadershipMade to Select, not Develop Private and Confidential4Tension should be mastered, not fearedThe most common questions clients ask us today are about tomorrow –what types of leaders can help us best navigate future uncertainty? RRA combined decades of market expertise, proprietary research on leadership characteristics, and millions of scientifically validated personality assessments via Hogan Assessment Systems, revealing 3 broad findingsIncreasingly, the traits that get a leader to the C-suite are different from –and, at times, in sharp contrast to –what predicts their performance once in the C-suiteC-suite PersonalityThe complexities and transformation mandates facingC-suite roles requires future leaders who break the traditional “either/or” trade-offs many rely on to prescribe success profilesChanging CircumstancesA fast-paced and uncertain environment undermines durability for unaware or inflexible leaders who are overly dependent on their primary strengthsC-suite Performance& Longevity Private and Confidential5RRA’s New Competency Model –Leadership SpanTMLeadership SpanTM, by design, is a future-focused, CEO and C-suite specific, and truly dynamic model. When combined, the competencies shown here differentiate leaders that can succeed in the C-suite.C-suiteDifferentiatorsCoreLeadershipPRAGMATICDISRUPTIVERELUCTANTRISK TAKINGVULNERABLEHEROICCONNECTINGGALVANIZINGSETTINGSTRATEGYEXECUTINGFOR RESULTSLEADINGTEAMSRELATIONSHIPSAND INFLUENCECore Leadership SkillsFoundational competencies crucial for leadership success at anylevel –at the C-suite or in junior leadership rolesC-suite …
