Tip 15 of 25
from Elaine Cogan
The critically important role of the chair of a planning board cannot be overemphasized. The planning process suffers if the chair is either weak and unfocused or too strong and intimidating.
These are some principles of effective leadership planning commission chairs should follow.
Be conversant with all the issues under discussion, but do not feel the need to be an expert in any. In fact, knowing too many technicalities may get in the way of encouraging and accepting the opinions of laypeople, a key role you should play.
Always show fairness and do not express your personal opinions, except when it is time to vote. If you must speak out, turn over the gavel to your vice chair. However, exercise that prerogative sparingly. If you do it too often, your ability to be an unbiased presiding officer will be questioned. Fairness also means you give everyone a chance to speak and deal quickly and decisively with those, either commission members or the public, who try to dominate the discussion.
Disdain the trappings of power. The gavel is all you should need to keep order, and it should be used sparingly. Neither request, require, nor countenance special consideration from staff or from anyone else.
Display energy and enthusiasm, even at a hearing that has dragged on into the early morning hours. Of course, an effective chair will not have allowed the meeting to go on that long, but in any event, you must always strive to be alert and positive, fair and courteous.
Use praise unsparingly. A good leader does not need praise; a good leader dispenses it when merited, but always sincerely. There should be much to laud: staff work on a particularly difficult or onerous issue; public testimony that is fair and non-belligerent on a contentious subject; courteous and intelligent discussion among the commissioners.
Stimulate and synthesize the group process without overwhelming it. You should always, figuratively at least, be looking to the right and the left and keeping your antennae out for verbal and nonverbal signals from the commission, staff, and the public. You do the best job as chair if you move the group to consensus more often than to a win/lose posture.
Most of all, a good planning commission chair enjoys the role and looks forward to tomorrow as another opportunity to exert enlightened and informed leadership.
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* About the designation “chair” rather than chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson. All are in common use, and all are correct. However, the neutral term “chair” is more in keeping with similar terms for other leadership positions such as administrator, president, and chief executive officer.
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Editor's Note: for more on the role of the chair -- from the long-time Chair of the Johnson County, Kansas, Planning Commission -- see Carol Whitlock's "Chairing the Planning Commission" (available to order & download).
We're pleased to be posting over the next half-year, on a weekly basis every Wednesday, PCJ columnist Elaine Cogan's 25 tips for planning commissioners from her excellent Now That You're on Board Publication.
We hope this will provide a convenient opportunity for planning commissioners and other "citizen planners" to benefit from Cogan's years' of experience in working with communities. The complete attractively-designed, spiral-bound, Now That You're on Board publication is also available for purchase and delivery by mail.
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