City of Delaware

On the Cusp of Change

The City of Delaware in Delaware, Ohio prides itself on being the best of both worlds—it boasts small-town charm with big-city amenities and a rich, traditional history with a modern attitude. Blending the past and present and marrying convention and innovation are at Delaware’s core. Beginning in 2017, the City become more intentional about striking that same balance in a new way—with its employees.

With millennials estimated to comprise half of the United States’ total workforce, and some studies showing that they became the largest generation in the workforce in 2016, organizations are quickly realizing that they are challenged by a generational gap and a lack of succession planning, as baby boomers begin to retire at a quickening pace. Numerous organizations have a story about being blindsided by a sudden resignation. Teams can be left scrambling as they try to pick up the slack. Meanwhile, the hiring manager is looking at a 20-year-old job description that doesn’t even mention Microsoft Office. Or, perhaps even more concerning, a great employee who has aspired to fill the vacant seat gets the promotion, but quickly fails, having not been trained properly or given the opportunity to learn applicable skills.

Recognizing that there would be a dramatic shift in their workforce in the short-term as a result of long-term employees retiring, the City of Delaware wanted to ensure that the leaders of tomorrow were being identified and developed to face future challenges. Part of developing its future leaders included identifying and defining the behaviors and characteristics that have made Delaware’s current leadership successful. Having had success previously with PRADCO in developing benchmark assessments, Delaware chose to once again partner with PRADCO for this endeavor.

Defining Success at Every Level

For the past 65 years, PRADCO has helped develop stronger organizations by helping to hire, develop, and retain talent. Partnering with PRADCO to plan and formalize a succession process can strengthen an organizations’ bench to ensure a seamless transition to its next leaders. But how can a third-party swiftly and accurately learn the ins and outs of how an organization operates? The answer lies in PRADCO’s data-driven behavioral assessments.

PRADCO assessed 70 leaders at three levels of leadership for the City of Delaware (department heads, managers, and supervisors) using the Quick View™ Leadership Assessment to create the benchmark that would later be used to determine the best people to hire, develop, and promote.

PRADCO analyzed the data several ways, looking at which behaviors were emphasized at each leadership level and by the quality of each performer. The results led to the realization that some characteristics are critical at all levels of leadership within the City, while others are most important at one or two levels of leadership.

With the first group of data compiled, PRADCO worked as a partner with the City of Delaware’s human resource staff to incorporate other significant resources, including recent culture survey results, along with the City’s mission, vision, and values.

As a final step, PRADCO facilitated two focus groups to fine-tune and review the top assessment behaviors. City employees played a vital role by filling any gaps with qualitative data about Delaware’s culture and what makes a successful leader there. With this holistic view, a set of 10 behaviors were finalized to be a benchmark for assessing and developing the City’s future leaders.

Critical leadership behaviors at each level

From Plan to Action and Outcome

After establishing their benchmark, Delaware had identified what behaviors successful leaders demonstrate but the question remained: How could the City develop employees with potential to ensure they would have the skills to thrive in a managerial role. PRADCO’s Striving for Excellence: Manager Development Program was the solution. The program helps new leaders learn strategies for managing themselves, their team, business results and outcomes, along with all the change leadership that comes with a managerial role.

Delaware initially selected program participants by looking at roles where current leadership would or could retire within five years and individuals who were hired or promoted into a leadership role within the past three years. Participants engaged in cohort learning and discussion, homework, and individual coaching to create a customized action plan to target development areas of opportunity. Direct supervisors provided support to ensure goal alignment and additional reinforcement for each participant throughout the program. In turn, the City of Delaware’s participants were extremely engaged, even choosing to come to meetings on their time off. 100% of the participants reported that the program was effective at helping them implement immediate behavioral changes to become more effective leaders. With such a successful first class in 2019, a second group of 16 participants was identified for the program in 2020. The City intends to carry forward the program into successive years.

Sustaining Success

In addition to launching new cohorts for the PRADCO Manager Development Program, the City is making strides to ensure sustainability and development of previous participants and encourage Delaware leaders to continue to learn and grow.

Program alumni are mentoring new participants to facilitate communication across departments and levels, working to solve complex issues the City faces, and leveraging strengths and resources where they are needed most.

The City feels confident that they are equipping tomorrow’s leaders today. Since the program’s implementation in 2019, four participants have either been promoted or served in interim leadership roles. Aside from equipping participants with the skills necessary to become successful leaders, the program has also been a strong catalyst for developing and strengthening cross-departmental relationships. Participants have welcomed the opportunity to interact with those they would normally not collaborate with. These interactions have provided for connection, camaraderie, respect, and a deeper understanding for who their coworkers are, what they do, and how their work collectively impacts the City’s nearly 40,000 residents.

As the City continues to be one of the fastest growing in the state, Delaware’s proactive planning is an investment in its future, allowing its leaders to build on Delaware’s historical traditions while innovating for what’s to come. PRADCO is proud to now be a part of the City’s rich history and a partner in its leadership development.