Leadership Resources for County Government Officials  

Courthouse Journal Blog  

February 19th, 2021 

Continued leadership training allows county leaders to navigate their strengths and their weaknesses, building on the positive aspects of a officials' leadership style. In the turmoil of 2020, many officials and government entities found it more difficult to make time for continued leadership and management training as many employeers found themself seperated from the majority of their staff, and completely tied up with the ever-changing workflow 2020 demanded.  

Even though in-person training still may be challenging to plan for your office, there are numerous resources for local county officials to obtain virtually. Through this blog, WACO highlights a few resource pages and articles county officials may find useful for further leadership training.  

Online Courses 

WACO: Washington Association of County Officials offers three entire online Management Training series presented by Dr. Robert Brown and Jan Dwyer Bang. The trainings materials and additional resources for online viewers. Viewers can watch the videos chronological or by topic. Find the trainings here . 

National Association of Counties:  NACo offers a Leadership Training Course, The NACo High Performance Leadership Academy is an innovative, completely online 12-week program created to equip frontline county government professionals with practical leadership skills to deliver results for counties and communities. Anyone in county government can participant, but HPLA is designed for entry- to mid-level county professionals, particularly those who manage teams or are preparing to in the future. NACo is currently enrolling the April 2021 class if you are interested in applying. 

Washington State Department of Enterprise Services: The Department of Enterprise Services offers leadership courses designed for new, developing, and experienced supervisors and managers. Their programs focus on performance management and accountability. A Leader Development Certificate is available and currently classes are being scheduled online in a virtual format.  

ICMA: Offers a resource for local government leadership and management training. Their programs are designed to advance your career, enrich your community and contribute to your professional fulfillment. Their program is drawn from the 14 core competencies their members determined as essential to leadership, you can find a list and explanation here. 

Resource Pages 

Institute for Local Government: The Institute for Local Government offers a wide array of resource topics for government officials for leadership and governance. They offer topics from effective governance, working with staff to “when bad things happen”.  Find a full list of resources here. 

MRSC: In 2014 Stan Finkelstein, Washington State Public Works Board member wrote an in-depth guide to becoming a leader in local government. He writes “The element of individual leadership is the ability to be the catalyst for defining that solution and fostering an environment for its adoption.” Find a link to his full blog here.