The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal power and women’s leadership collide. I expose how staff culture builds or breaks public trust, and why women leaders must set the standard for their teams and their communities. This is unapologetic strategy, rooted in SCALE™, for leaders who refuse to carry the weight of broken systems alone. Subscribe and join a community that’s rewriting the rules of government leadership.
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Issue 53: The Manager Did Not Fold. The Support Did. | The Backbone™ Series, Part 2 of 3
Published about 10 hours ago • 4 min read
Dear Reader,
The Backbone™ Series | Part 2 of 3
This week, more than 5,500 local government leaders gathered in Long Beach for the ICMA Annual Conference. One village administrator counted at least nine sessions on stress, resilience, and the toll this profession takes. People stood in the back of those rooms.
That is not a wellness trend. That is a profession telling you something.
In Part 1, I shared a question a man left on one of my posts. “What do you do if the manager folds like a cheap lawn chair while staff are being attacked?”
I promised you an answer, and it starts with honesty.
Some managers are not strong in the role. Some will not defend their staff when the room turns. Your team feels that, and pretending otherwise helps no one.
Many managers who fold, though, do not lack a backbone. They fold because they are the only bone holding the weight.
A spine is a column of vertebrae. Each one carries part of the load. Pull out the ones around it, and even the strongest bone gives way.
A backbone is many bones sharing one load. Image: Europeana / Unsplash
The Catalyst Perspective
When I became a village manager, I walked into board meetings that had become a spectacle.
Board members yelled at one another during public meetings. Meetings started at 7 PM. Staff who had already worked a full day sat at the front of the room until 10 or 11 at night.
Some residents treated the meetings as a social event. They came ready. They attacked and ridiculed staff from the floor, and the person running the meeting allowed the ridicule.
Nobody in authority had drawn a line. The behavior had become the culture.
Inside the building, it was no better. Directors stopped speaking to employees they disagreed with. Emails sat unanswered for weeks. Approximately 25 grievances waited for resolution.
I did not start with a directive. I started with a listening tour.
I visited every department and asked what was working, what was broken, and what people needed. I ate with every fire shift. I sat down with the union representatives, acknowledged how hard things had been, and apologized for the environment they had endured.
The police department had no drinking water. Officers bought their own on patrol. I fixed it.
Once I took my seat at the dais, I made a habit of speaking up for staff. I named the work they had done and the steps we had taken to resolve residents’ concerns. When the floor told one story, the record told another.
Small fixes told staff someone was paying attention. Over time, their children started stopping by my office. Their parents wanted me to meet them.
That did not happen because I was fearless. It happened because staff finally felt supported by more than one person.
If you lead a team or serve on one, here is the lesson. A manager can protect staff for one meeting. A culture protects them every night the gavel falls.
The pressure does not stop at the podium. At the Eradicate Hate Global Summit last month, city managers described staff divided by conflicts happening on the other side of the world. The attacks now come from the floor, the inbox, and the break room. No single leader can stand in all three places.
So the answer to the lawn chair question is not “find a tougher manager.” Strong or still growing, every manager needs a structure behind them. The answer is to build the spine into the culture, the team, and the board.
The SCALE Framework For Public Sector Leadership™
S: Strengths-Based Leadership™ - Start with what your team already does well. The supervisor who calms a hostile caller has a strength worth naming and repeating.
C: Confidence and Cognitive Reframing™ - A manager who folds is not always a weak manager. That leader may be an unsupported one. Some managers do fail to defend their staff, and the team carries the cost. Many others want to stand firm and find no structure behind them. Reframe the problem, and you change the solution. A: Aligned Values and Boundary Negotiation™ - Put the standard in writing, with the board’s vote behind it, so no one has to defend it alone in the moment.
L: Leadership Longevity™ - Nine crowded sessions on stress is a warning. Leaders who last share the load before it breaks them.
E: Emboldened Ecosystem Building™ - Your backbone includes your board, your directors, your supervisors, every person on your team, and your peers outside city hall.
Your backbone is the whole team.
Take Action Today: The Backbone Audit™
Answer yes or no to each statement.
Our board or council has adopted written standards for how members and the public address staff.
Our presiding officer and I have agreed on what happens when someone attacks staff from the floor.
Every department has a named second who responds when the director is not in the room.
Staff know who checks on them the morning after a hostile meeting.
I have a peer outside my organization I can call after a hard night.
Count your yeses. Five means your spine is strong. Four means you are close. Three or fewer means one person is carrying weight the whole organization should share.
Pick one “no” and turn it into a “yes” before your next meeting.
If your answers held more “no” than you expected, that is where my work begins. I bring staff workshops and board or council retreats to municipal and public sector teams, designed around your organization.
When a manager folds, the easy question is who failed. Sometimes the answer is the manager, and that deserves an honest conversation. The better question is what else should have carried the weight.
I have one more piece of news. Starting in January 2027, the second issue of each month will include a free resource from The Leadership Catalyst™ Resource Library. Each one will grow from the questions you bring to me in comments, messages, and conversations.
Hit reply and tell me which challenge deserves the first resource.
In Part 3, we step outside city hall. We will look at how leaders build support across the whole community, so staff and residents share the standard.
Until then, sit with this question. If your manager folded tomorrow, what in your organization would catch your staff?
In partnership and purpose, Chasity Wells-Armstrong Founder, Catalyst Coaching & Transformation Local Government Leadership Strategist, Speaker & Researcher Municipal Workshops, Board & Council Retreats Former Mayor | Village Manager | City Councilor | Congressional Staffer Creator of the SCALE™ Framework for Public Sector Leadership
The Leadership Catalyst is where municipal power and women’s leadership collide. I expose how staff culture builds or breaks public trust, and why women leaders must set the standard for their teams and their communities. This is unapologetic strategy, rooted in SCALE™, for leaders who refuse to carry the weight of broken systems alone. Subscribe and join a community that’s rewriting the rules of government leadership.
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