Goodman programming develops business leaders
It was a void Frank Fabiano realized needed filling soon after making the leap from private to public sector.
Professional development opportunities were virtually non-existent for municipal managers. Those that were available were limited and lacked a leadership focus, or happened outside Niagara, which meant additional costs for cash-strapped local governments keen to bring out the best in their workforce.
And Fabiano, the City of Thorold’s chief administrative officer, was keen.
“I noticed communications wasn’t as good as it should be,” he said. “It was more adversarial, more old-fashioned. ‘I’m the manager, you’re the employee, you have to listen to me.’ I didn’t want that environment for my employees. We’re a team and I wanted us to work together as a team.”
His quest to foster such a work environment led him to Brock University’s Goodman School of Business, where custom professional development programming had been created for another local municipality.
It wasn’t exactly what Fabiano was after, but the university was willing to work with him and other municipal leaders in Niagara to develop high quality learning opportunities. A committee was struck and together Fabiano, Goodman and other progressive municipalities in the region built an affordable leadership program called NextGen to meet their needs.
It’s offered through Brock’s Centre for Innovation, Management and Enterprise Education (CIMEE), run by the Goodman School of Business. CIMEE offers a variety of business and leadership development certificate programs for professionals wanting to update their knowledge, acquire new skills and accelerate their careers.
CIMEE creates custom programming, like it did with Niagara’s municipal leaders. It also offers public seminars for entrepreneurs and other professionals wanting to contribute more fully to the success of their businesses and workplaces.
Two public seminar certificate programs, Professional Leadership and Entrepreneurial Leadership, are done in partnership with the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce and cover issues including personality dimensions, building successful mentoring relationships, coaching for performance, and finance for non-finance managers.
The next round of public seminars starts at the Goodman School of Business on Oct. 28.
Fabiano has seen only positive results from the professional development his staff received through CIMEE’s NextGen program. They understand their roles, and others,’ better, he explained.
“Our people are more understanding of how to manage individuals, how to lead individuals,” he said. “It’s about changing people’s views on work life and the work-life balance.”
He’s also seen more collaboration happen between his employees and those at other local municipalities, who meet through the CIMEE program and create a professional network that lasts long afterward.
Now Fabiano is contemplating developing new programming with Goodman to provide leadership education for municipal workers who aspire to become managers.
“This allows us to use an institution that’s here, with a really good reputation. The Goodman School itself is very highly respected. It gives our staff the feeling of attending university-level courses and that they’re accomplishing something,” he said. “We’ve got a great thing going here.”
Visit goodman.brocku.ca/community/CIMEE to learn more.