Every neighbourhood and community may have lots of ‘local leaders’ at any one time. Many of them would never have thought they would be. Perhaps, a few of them wish that weren’t – and that someone else was taking a lead instead of them!  Usually, most of them don’t know each other well, although they may live quite close. Local leaders come from many communities, but they tend not to form a community of their own.

Compared to the rest, what makes councillors special?  In one way, nothing – councillors face the same pressures, share the concerns and passions and use the same skills as other active citizens? Councillors are as likely to get things right, or make mistakes – and to learn, or not, from mistakes when they are made?  They are as likely to get on with people and sometimes fall out with people. Councillors are citizens, the same as other local community leaders.

Councillors, however, are quite different from all the others in two important, and connected, ways:

1)   Citizens elect councillors – they are elected by the people and are accountable in a way that none of the other local leaders are. This is not to say other community leaders are unaccountable, but they are not democratically accountable

2)   Councillors represent everyone in the area, regardless of the communities they belong to.  So councillors are connectors – able to introduce people to each other in the ward – and beyond.  Other community leaders may not know each other well; a councillor needs to know them as many as possible in order to do the job well?

 

What now?

You could:

Head to the end of this section on Leadership by looking at how to be a better leader?

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