Honesty and humility traits we appreciate

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/02/2015 (3928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many Winnipeg business leaders are a lot like Mark Chipman.

They just want to get the job done.

They don’t need or want personal profile and they certainly don’t want to get caught in the middle of a public relations snafu or be holding onto any part of a politician’s agenda.

It takes an incredible circumstance for a business leader in this community to set foot out of the corporate boardroom where they freely exercise their frustrations about a business issue, and walk out onto the public sidewalk for everyone to hear what’s on their mind.

So it left more than a few of this city’s communications and public relations experts gobsmacked this week when Mark Chipman, chairman of True North Sports & Entertainment, governor of the Winnipeg Jets and proponent of a $400-million downtown development, took to a podium for 30 minutes and said publicly he didn’t agree with Mayor Brian Bowman’s assessment of how his project led to a CentreVenture contract.

At the same time, it made many of us hopeful more leaders — business, union, social enterprisers — will step up when they disagree and really engage the community on issues they care about and projects they champion. It doesn’t mean we’ll all agree, but it would better inform, educate, engage and hopefully lead to better community decisions, because frankly we don’t hear enough from them often enough.

At the other end of the communications continuum was rookie mayor Brian Bowman, who earnestly communicated too much too soon. And to be fair, he had a hard turn to make. Imagine that for months, all you’re doing is campaigning to get the job and then suddenly — you have the job.

Getting off the campaign treadmill, letting the adrenaline subside and giving yourself time to breathe normally again is suddenly unnatural. Bowman wasn’t the first and won’t be the last politician who missed the off ramp from rapid campaign tour to the slow lane.

In the same vein, the people who help run campaigns with single-minded gusto may not be the same kind of people you need to be your reality check when you’re thinking of bringing about sudden change in the new job.

Every day in this city, a business or organization gets a new leader. The best ones start their first few weeks — or 100 days — not trying to convince someone they’re good for the job, but communicating they want to learn from the dozens or hundreds of people who have built the business and organization and got it to that point. Because after all, without them there wouldn’t be an organization for you to join.

In Winnipeg, we’re still a city small enough where anyone with an idea can actually make it happen — but not alone. Mayors have to work with civic unions; unions have to work with businesses; businesses have to work with governments; governments rely on the not-for-profit agencies… and that’s what makes the city go around. And it all happens with trust and sound communications.

With our aspirations to attract more investment to support projects such as Chipman’s True North Square, and as we need to attract more talent to Winnipeg — such as a new CAO for the City of Winnipeg — we need to remember those new investors and future employees are watching us.

We need to manage our collective reputation — together.

As far as going forward — right after transparency — today’s taxpayers and voters appreciate honesty… and humility.

 

Shirley Muir is president of the PRHouse and the former City of Winnipeg public affairs manager.