May 2016 - Parks & Recreation - 67

itating the development of the seven
Cs and providing a supportive work
environment will require continuous
effort and resources, but the payoffs,
in terms of productivity, morale and
workforce retention, far outweigh
any costs of time and money.
Effectively Working
with Our Partners
Leadership with our partners is
about creating a sense of community. Finding commonalities with
other agencies, nonprofits, city departments, business community and
citizenry is critical to the overall success of how we work. As park and
recreation professionals, we must
be more open to the idea of partnerships, focusing on what is best
for the community as a whole and
encouraging this philosophy among
all our partners. If someone else can
do it faster, better and at lower costs,
then we should support them with
open arms. It is critical that we seek
out partnering opportunities so we
not only open more doors to being
more economically viable, but we
also increase the number of voices
sharing our success stories.
In order to achieve successful relationships with our partners, the
following elements have been found
to be very helpful:
* Gain buy-in by all partners. Listening, acknowledging and compromising are critical to gaining
buy-in. So is identifying mutual
benefits for all partners.
* Provide all partners a real sense
of ownership. They need to
know that you respect their involvement and see them as an
equal partner.
* Provide clear and meaningful
recognition of their involvement.
* Work to establish a deep sense
of trust among all partners. This
requires being completely honest

and transparent and promoting
mutual respect. Without trust
none of the other keys to success
can be accomplished.
Building partnerships and encouraging collaboration are so important
in today's work environment. As
mentioned earlier, part of the performance evaluation system should
address the workforce's success and
effectiveness in creating and utilizing partnerships and collaborative
efforts. These performance criteria
are possibly more important than
other areas of performance that we
traditionally focus on, such as the
number of programs offered and
how much money they make.
Effectively Working
with Policymakers
For the most part, working in the
policymaking environment is exciting, colorful and diverse, but you
need to know your core values, be
confident in your ability to articulate
them and always have a backup plan
to be successful in this arena. If as
leaders we seem uncertain, indecisive and vague, policymakers will
sense that and challenge us. Effective leaders speak in a calm, clear,
focused and concise manner. No
policymaker wants to hear us pontificate; that is their job!
It is important to always be professional, but this does not mean you
have to always agree with or respond
to a policymaker with what they
want. It also does not mean compromising your standards or doing
something you know will have lasting implications with regard to ethical issues. What it does mean is that
you need to have your finger on the
political pulse. You have to be able
to help policymakers understand the
implications, good or bad, of the
decision(s) they may make. Once
you have handled this in the most

professional manner, then it is up to
the policymakers to make their decisions. We may not always be able to
make them take action on what we
want and believe, but we can provide
the best professional information for
an informed decision.
The Effective Future
Being an effective leader in this
" new normal " world requires us
to be able to respond to the rapidly
changing work, family, civic and societal environments in which we operate. All of our constituent groups
desire connectedness; not just technologically but personally as well.
Consumers, employees and volunteers, partners and policymakers all
want meaningful relationships with
their constituents and colleagues.
Success, now, is highly dependent
on building, facilitating and maintaining these relationships.
Our employees must have the
tools necessary to meet the many
complex issues we are facing: ever-growing environmental challenges, diverse and highly individualized groups, the ever-changing
balance of power in organizations,
demographic transformations, instant and continuous communication, energy challenges and many
others we can't even fathom today.
We need to be innovative and
build a public recreation and parks
system that foresees the future and
successfully responds to it. In the
words of the famous Canadian ice
hockey player, Wayne Gretsky, we
need to " skate to where the puck
[i.e., challenge] is going to be, not
where it has been. "
Sara Hensley is the Director of the Austin
Parks and Recreation Department (sara.
hensley@austintexas.gov). Lawrence Allen
is professor and Dean Emeritus in the
Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism
Management at Clemson University (lalln@
clemson.edu).

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