This article will address issues and concerns for public leaders today and in the future. If those of us in the field today see a crisis in public leadership, we also see an opportunity to speak to those concerns and share our views. Public leaders include individuals who hold political office, but government officials comprise only a sub-group of the whole.
Public leaders are leaders of any public or private institution, organization or association.
They must be concerned about civic duty, quality of the environment, the global economy, local infrastructure, capacity building for future needs and producing leaders for the future. True Leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders. This view of the world requires the public leader to explore characteristics of other lifestyles and their effectiveness and to consider a proper fit within his or her community. Most major concerns of public leaders will be indirectly and in some cases directly affected by demographics and lifestyle trends. Given the increasing shifts in population and a value system which appears to be under siege, public leaders will be required to continually assess the appropriateness of planning and decision-making processes, and the correctness of existing methods of operation.