10 minute read
Ethics Matter
Want to Elevate your Career? Nurture Your Reputation
Follow this advice to build and sustain a good reputation on your professional journey
BY MARTHA PEREGO, ICMA-CM
MARTHA PEREGO, ICMA-CM, is
director of member services and ethics director, ICMA, Washington, D.C. (mperego@icma.org). What an exhilarating time to elevate your career. While the “great resignation” captured everyone’s attention last year, 2022 will be the “great opportunity” for those seeking to advance their career. The job market is hot and competitive. Local governments are searching for talent from all sectors and career paths. As our more seasoned colleagues move on to their encore careers, the sheer volume and variety of organizations seeking senior-level leaders has not been this vibrant in decades.
Everyone vying for these positions will bring talent, skills, credentials, and experience to the table. All those attributes are critical for career success. So, too, is a commitment to a high ethical standard that is foundational to building a credible and enduring reputation. At times, integrity and high standards may not seem to be valued by decision makers. Taking the long-term perspective on a career in the public sector though, the reputation you build by your commitment to integrity, honesty, and the profession’s standards will serve you well as you advance in your career. The stories shared in this edition of PM reinforce the importance of anchoring your professional aspirations and your work in a core set of ethical values.
As you contemplate the opportunity on your horizon, here is some advice designed to ensure that you nurture and sustain a good reputation on your lifelong journey:
Personal and professional are inseparable. Probably one of the most challenging aspects of public service is that you do relinquish some of your privacy. What you do and say in your personal sphere may have relevancy and impact on your reputation and ability to serve the public. Indeed, the ICMA Code of Ethics in defining integrity calls us to demonstrate by word and action the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all public, professional, and personal relationships in order to merit the trust and respect of others. To that end, it’s wise to think about your presence on social media—what you post, say, and endorse. Fairly or not, someone looking at the content will make judgments about you and your character.
Facts are facts. When the details about credentials, education, and experience are not factual, that raises a red flag about your honesty. Future employers and the executive search firms they hire will now be focused on your credibility rather than your suitability for the position. At best, it’s just sloppy to get details wrong. At worse, it’s dishonest. To avoid any issue, double check to ensure that your resume, LinkedIn profile, and other public
International City/County Management Association
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January 2022
Public Management (PM) (USPS: 449-300) is published monthly by ICMA (the International City/County Management Association) at 777 North Capitol Street. N.E., Washington, D.C. 20002-4201. Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. The opinions expressed in the magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of ICMA.
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presentations are accurate and factual. If you had a short tenure because you just took a position in the wrong organization, you are best positioned to include it on your resume and explain why it didn’t work out. If you omit it, it might seem like you were hiding something that is unflattering. To be clear, if you let your ICMA Credential lapse, take it off your resume and online presence until you can reinstate.
Commitment matters. For the appointed manager, the ICMA Code of Ethics sets a standard for a two-year tenure. To effectuate change, provide leadership to the organization, or even get a budget in place, that is the bare minimum on the commitment spectrum. There are, of course, times when for personal or organizational reasons, a manager should leave before serving two years. The objective, though, is that a professional will fully commit to the position to provide steady leadership that advances the organization’s efforts. Not in the manager’s role? Did you agree to stay for a tenure to ensure that the organization met another goal? Your word to fulfill that obligation means something.
Work the network in your job search. Assuming you met any commitments you made to your current organization or the two-year tenure guideline if you are a manager, now may be a fortuitous time to make the next big career move. Testing the market may be in order if you haven’t been out there in a while. But be intentional and strategic. Don’t waste a future employer’s time with an interview if you don’t really want the position or are using it as leverage to get more compensation back home.
Before accepting a position do your homework to ensure that it will be a good fit for you professionally and personally. Leverage the network. I promise that if you “cold call” a colleague who works or worked for an organization that you are interested in, they will not only take that call but generously take the time to provide their perspective. You don’t have to make the leap into some great unknown.
Respect your competitors. Stay in this business long enough and you will experience the thrill of being the finalist and the disappointment one day of not being that person. Along the way you might even become friends with a competitor. The point is that the one who succeeded in getting the position is not your enemy. Be gracious in defeat and kind in victory as we will all see each other down the road at some point. And remember, never enter a recruitment process if no official action has been taken with regard to the incumbent manager.
2021–2022 ICMA Executive Board
PRESIDENT Troy Brown, ICMA-CM City Manager Moorpark, California
PRESIDENT-ELECT Jeffrey Towery, ICMA-CM City Manager McMinnville, Oregon
PAST PRESIDENT James Malloy, ICMA-CM Town Manager Lexington, Massachusetts
VICE PRESIDENTS
International Region
Robert Kristof City Manager Timisoara, Romania Chris MacPherson Chief Administrative Officer Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada Rebecca Ryan General Manager Blayney Shire Council, New South Wales, Australia
Midwest Region
Molly Mehner, ICMA-CM Assistant City Manager Cape Girardeau, Missouri Victor Cardenas, ICMA-CM Assistant City Manager Novi, Michigan Corri Spiegel, ICMA-CM City Administrator Davenport, Iowa
Mountain Plains Region
Raymond Gonzales Jr. County Manager Adams County, Colorado Diane Stoddard, ICMA-CM Assistant City Manager Lawrence, Kansas Kenneth Williams* City Manager Buda, Texas
Northeast Region
Teresa Tieman, ICMA-CM Manager in Transition Dover, Delaware William Fraser, ICMA-CM City Manager Montpelier, Vermont Scott W. Colby Jr. Assistant Town Manager Windsor, Connecticut
Southeast Region
Michael Kaigler, ICMA-CM Assistant County Manager Chatham County, Georgia Nate Pagan, ICMA-CM City Manager Owensboro, Kentucky Valmarie Turner, ICMA-CM Assistant County Administrator Loudoun County, Virginia
West Coast Region
Peter Troedsson, ICMA-CM City Manager Albany, Oregon Roxanne Murphy Assistant City Manager Valdez, Alaska Pamela Antil, ICMA-CM City Manager Encinitas, California
* ICMA-CM Candidate ICMA CEO/Executive Director Marc Ott
Director, Equity & Social Justice and Membership Marketing
Managing Editor
Newsletter Editor
Graphics Manager
Design & Production Lynne Scott lscott@icma.org
Kerry Hansen khansen@icma.org
Kathleen Karas kkaras@icma.org
Delia Jones djones@icma.org
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Our ethical Keep your word. If you journey in the accept a position, consider that a binding commitment on your profession is akin end. You can vie for and consider to hiking in the other offers. But once you say wilderness. Just yes and give your word that you will take the position, it’s a huge as you would ethical ding on your reputation never hike alone, if you then renege. Consider that it’s wise to bring your decision may affect other potential offers. An organization along on this interested in you may be turned professional off to hear that you renege on journey that ethically grounded your commitment. Bring a friend along for the journey. In a talk with friend with whom Women Leading Government you can have an honest and direct in Colorado a few years ago, I referred to our ethical journey in the profession being akin to hiking conversation. in the wilderness. Just as you would never hike alone, it’s wise to find and bring along on this professional journey that ethically grounded friend or colleague with whom you can have an honest and direct conversation. The person who is so grounded that they will tell you “no” even when you want to hear “yes.”
We all need wise counsel. The wise counsel I heard that day was that many of these women do indeed hike in the wildness alone. They are experienced, confident in their skills, and far braver than I!
Who is your mentor? Whom do you mentor? Bobby
Green’s work to mentor and support others to choose this profession is an inspiring story told in this edition. As Bobby notes in the article on page 14, the single greatest motivation for considering a career in public service is the exposure to a nurturing professional manager. Mentoring doesn’t have a prescribed hierarchy or approach. Each of us, perched from our spot, can reach out to engage, support, and encourage all who are in the profession.
Consider the Five Leading Principles. Bob McEvoy, whose story on page 34 is told through the perspective of those he mentored, served a long tenure as a county manager in New
York. Given the politics and culture, that was not easy sailing.
Bob then supported the profession by teaching the next cohort of managers. Here are Bob’s five leading principles which are enduring. 1. Be ethical. 2. Give to the profession that gives to you. 3. Pay it forward. 4. Serve as a mentor. 5. Build community. On your professional journey, wherever it may take you, nothing is more important than anchoring your professional aspirations and your work in a core set of ethical values. UPCOMING ICMA EVENTS
icma.org/events
ICMA Code of Ethics Review: ICMA Members, We Want to Hear from You Plan to attend any of the three virtual meetings open to all members to share feedback on how to better integrate the profession’s commitment to equity and social justice in the Code. Sessions limited to 100 participants. January 7 (session full)
February 25 April 29
12-1:00 pm U.S. Eastern More information, including meeting registration details, is available at icma.org/ethics-dei.
January 3: ICMA Voluntary Credentialing Deadline January 13: Webinar: Planning for Economic Recovery January 26: Webinar: Delivering Productive Performance Evaluations January 26: Webinar: Exploring Local Government Career Opportunities for Transitioning Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Spouses January 31: Deadline to Apply for the Harvard Senior Executive Program
Courageous Conversations Recordings can be viewed at icma.org/living-history
• Equity Officers in Local Government • Native and Indigenous Leaders Leading in Local Government • A Life in Public Service: Three stories of the transition from the military to local government • Creating a Truly Inclusive Culture • LGBTQIA+ Experience in Local Government • Asian American Experience in Local Government
Part 2: Trailblazers in our Hometowns (Asian-Pacific
Heritage Month) • Coming Out of the Darkness: Mental Health and
Suicide Prevention • Asian-American Experience in Local Government • Women Pioneer Managers in the Profession • A Conversation with Marc Ott, ICMA’s First Black Executive
Director, and Sy Murray, ICMA’s First Black President
Apply now for the 2022-22 ICMA Leadership Institute on Race, Equity, and Inclusion icma.org/leadership-institute-race-equity-and-inclusion February 25: Applications due to ICMA by close of business.
