Lessons on how to be a real leader in Bristol

This blog is by Tessa Coombes, former councillor and now studying for an MSc in Public Policy at Bristol University

Cities and urban areas are the key to our future but they also provide serious challenges to sustainable living. So, in an increasingly urban world how important is leadership to the future of our cities? That was the subject of debate at the Watershed on Friday where expert speakers on green city leadership presented their recipes for success.

New Zealand professor Christine Cheyne talked about mayors and leadership in her home country, Professor Robin Hambleton, from the University of the West of England, introduced us to ‘place-based’ leadership with examples from Freiburg and Portland, while Bristol Green Capital chief executive Kris Donaldson talked about the plans for next year. An interesting line-up and some great examples to get us thinking about the importance of leadership.

Professor Alex Marsh, from the School for Policy Studies at Bristol University, chaired the debate and kicked off the discussion with a reminder about how important cities are as places with challenges but also great innovation and where distributed leadership could be the way forward. The debate that followed raised some interesting ideas and lessons that we could learn from here in Bristol.

Firstly, a critical point was made about the importance of the national context to a debate about city leadership. Where city leadership works most effectively, power, decision-making, funding and responsibility are all delegated to the local level, to the city. This means there is room for cities to do things differently because central control is devolved and that’s exactly how it works in countries such as Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, and the United States.

The issue of personality and the importance of strong characters to lead our cities was raised, with the need for visionary local leadership and ambitious forward thinking very much at the heart of this debate. But the most important point about leadership was actually about dispersed leadership and how it is not just the council or the mayor that are important but leadership at multiple levels.

This raised a number of issues about leadership from across communities and neighbourhoods, from different sectors and about encouraging devolution to the most local level – the neighbourhood level.

As well as a criticism of central government for not devolving enough responsibility and decision making to the level of the city, the same is true of our local city halls, where local mayors and councillors tend to hang on to whatever power they have and are reluctant to share that more widely with citizens.

In the UK we have been less innovative or creative in our approach to neighbourhood-level engagement and involvement, with opportunities for participatory budgeting or real devolution rarely enabled or considered. With the potential for more power to be vested in one individual at the centre of City Hall (the Mayor) there comes a responsibility to share that power with local communities, by working with people and responding to local aspirations, rather than merely carrying your own agenda. An important lesson for all areas embarking on new forms of city governance?

The final key point that came from the discussion was about how we perceive ‘green’ leadership with all speakers making the case that ‘green’ doesn’t just mean ‘environment’. It has to be about so much more than that. This is an issue that has been at the heart of the green debate for many years, with a clear recognition of the need to link across agendas, to incorporate democracy, participation, social inclusion and equity as central to the green agenda.

For me this is something we do less well and that many of our political and business leaders forget. The critical debate about leadership is about connecting the city, not dividing it, about working with people, not dictating to them. True leadership is bringing people along with you to develop a legacy for the city that all levels, sectors and interests can buy in to and support.

There are many lessons here for Bristol, both in terms of the future of city governance locally and in relation to ensuring Bristol Green Capital 2015 is an open, transparent and accessible process that engages all those who wish to engage.