Ken Larsen's website - Leadership attributes that I'd like to see in a town or county leader

      

Attribute/want	Weight	Explanation
Fiscal responsibility	10	Strong knowledge of accounting and Town finances.  Examples of people who I would give low marks to are anyone who was involved with or strongly supported DOLRT (the light rail project).  It wasted $ 159M of taxpayer money.
Serve your constituents	9	Wiliness to reach out to and support all of your constituents.  Attention should be skewed towards helping the less fortunate.  I'd give low marks to anyone who was beholden to special interest groups
Adaptability	8	Learn from your mistakes and the mistakes of others.  Be willing to change. Being willing to consider the world outside of Chapel Hill ... even outside the U.S. to search for optimal solutions. Wiliness to learn new skills
Good leadership skills	7	Good communication skills  [details] Key attributes are:  Humility, gregarious, humor, willing to listen, and diplomacy Being able to run a meeting, being able to prioritize Negative attributes are intransigence and impartiality.
Knowledge of issues and tools	6	Knowledge of the Town's key issues, what the priority of each is, and a plan to address each. Learn how other towns (both in the U.S. and outside) address similar issues. It's enormously helpful if you were on a Town board prior to running for higher office. Familiarity with decision analysis tools such as Kepner-Tregoe Some knowledge of basic probability theory Social media savvy Wiliness to learn new skills
Listening skills		Be responsive to colleagues and citizen requests for help.
Respectiveful communication	4	Williness to explore reasons behind dissenting views.
Critical thinking		Learning about the issues. Willingness to ask the tough questions Seeing small issues in context of overall town policy and trends. Making educated decision based on facts.
Effective collaboration		Working with colleagues effectively; responsive to citizen requests
Optimistic outlook	1	Holding the belief that problems can be solves and improvements in the town can be made
Personal qualities	3	Regarded by others as a person of integrity and trustworthy
Follow through		Commitment to making steady progress toward community goals through effective collaboration and execution.

I've set this table up as the first step in a "Kepner-Tregoe Decision Analysis" for evaluating candidates.  A brief explanation of what Kepner-Tregoe is can be found on this page.