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In his or her role both as manager and positional leader, the economic
development practitioner may simply need to coordinate and help facilitate
mobilization of leadership if the existing leadership base is adequate. It is
the effective facilitation of activities and the management of programs that

usually determines how well the practitioner is ultimately is accepted as a
leader. The developer as a leader should know when to take the lead,
when to learn from other leaders, and when to bring in other leaders. An
organization’s leader is certainly more effective over the long term by
assigning appropriate tasks and projects to staff and other administrative
support personnel, and helping them develop their own leadership

capacity.

Success for the manager of an organization is usually determined on the
basis of short-term accomplishments, while success for local leaders is
more likely to be measured by the long-term improvements in the

community. In any case, the practitioner has an opportunity to have a
favorable impact on the community by cultivating existing leadership and
developing potential leaders. Professional economic developers know that a
town with few advantages, but which has good leadership, will be more successful
than a good town with no leadership. 328

Within the development organization, the executive director also must

serve as leader to the staff. In that capacity, he/she should encourage them
through feedback, coaching, reward systems, and building employee
commitment. 329 The integration of these elements is a critical task that the
leader of the organization must understand and perform. The rewards to
employees can be as simple as praise and as complicated as performance

bonus systems. The benefits of rewards are best realized when they are
aligned with both the culture of the organization and the needs of the
employees. The use of feedback and coaching by the executive director
provides employees with information that will help them reach their full
potential.
330

328 Williams, Malcolm. “Leadership – The Key to Economic Development,” Economic Development
Review, V8N3, (Summer 1990): 4-6.
329 Locke, E. The Essence of Leadership: Four Keys to Leading Successfully. San Francisco CA: New
Lexington Press, 1991.
330 Holton, Elwood F., and Naquin, Sharon S., editors. Developing High-Performance Leadership
Competency (San Francisco: Berret-Koehler Communications, 2000), p. 78.

David Kolzow 300