The home front is the front
The attack on the seventh of October inside the Israeli home front on an unprecedented scale turned the home front into the front of the war.
Even today, when the intensity of the fighting has decreased, we know that the management of the local authorities has become a critical part of Israel's national resilience and functioning, this even before the scenario of full-scale fighting against Lebanon was realized.
The local government was revealed in all its glory in the management of the emergency events and in the creation of the emergency routine during the war, the strengthening of the home front alongside the synchronized work with the security forces at the level of the local government, gave the central government and the security system the patience to manage the war.
The importance of practice, organizational competence, leadership and management in emergency situations has always been significant in the role of the head of the authority, and now it is also a measure in the eyes of the residents.
Female representation
One of the positive side effects of the war is the public discourse on political leadership.
We returned to asking ourselves as a society who are the figures we see and see in leadership positions and despite the declarations, the war gave us another indication of the meaning of female leadership.
Female municipal leadership is reflected in the leadership of authorities and also in the number of women around the council table.
We all vote and vote with two ballots, it is important that we remember that the city council and the discourse that takes place in it has tremendous significance for municipal decision-making and the more women sit around this table, the better the decision-making will reflect the diversity in society in order to provide optimal service to all residents.
100 days of grace?
It has always been agreed that there are "100 days of grace" for a person entering a new position.
In the work we did in collaboration with Dr. Shushi Chen, a faculty member at the Faculty of Management at Tel Aviv University, we learned that, on the other hand, the great challenge of the process of entering the position is that in most cases there are not 100 days of grace in which you can focus only on learning. Heads of authorities are required almost from the first moment to respond to issues , to make decisions and solve problems. In light of this, the great challenge is a combination of learning and execution, between strategic planning and responding to immediate needs.
Each head of an authority must, at the same time, develop a strategy for the organization and promote execution and outputs. These are two opposing requirements that require different abilities, investment of time, resources and attention. While all senior managers should do this, studies show that few are good at it. Since we have been in a routine of war for 143/144 days we are in a complex situation, on the one hand there are issues that are pushed to the margins of the local discourse in many of the local authorities such as long-term planning because And we are in a state of continuous fighting and on the other hand heads of authorities who take office will enter directly into the war and for an interim period doubtless before another campaign, which will require them to act quickly and formulate a strategy in record time.
The role of the head of the authority has not changed
In the end, a new head of a local authority who sits on his throne on the first day will have to create an integration between the worlds of management and the worlds of local government.
Some of the new heads of authorities were managers and some come with experience in the worlds of local government, but the combination of the two alongside the heavy responsibility that rests on the shoulders of the head of the authority and the commitment to leadership in the complex period we are in poses a challenge to each of them, in my eyes this is the most significant, challenging and interesting role in Israel.
To be an excellent authority head or head, you are required to demonstrate your management, professional and leadership abilities every day in order to provide the best service and the best quality of life for your residents.
We established the Bloomberg Sagol Center for Urban Leadership at Tel Aviv University for exactly this purpose - to provide millions of Israeli citizens who live in local authorities with better service. We do this by running a leadership program for heads of authorities and managers and operate additional support tracks in local authorities in Israel with the aim of imparting knowledge and tools while learning One of the leading experts in the world in the field of municipal leadership. The center was established in 2022 in Israel by the American philanthropist and former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg and the Israeli Segol family.
The center exists because we believe that local government is the arena that most significantly affects our quality of life, all the time.
If you are new or veteran heads of authorities or active in the local government arena as elected officials or managers, you are invited to follow us and learn from the practices that already exist in Israel and around the world for management in the local area.
Today/tomorrow we all have the right to influence, it's a right that we only have once every five years and that's why none of us have the privilege not to vote to make the place where we live better.
If you are now reading this column in line for the writer, sitting at home on the sofa, while doing dozens of tasks, don't be lazy, don't hesitate, go vote!
The author - Edith Bar, CEO of the Bloomberg Sagol Center for Urban Leadership at Tel Aviv University
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