DRAFT Please do not cite without permission of the authors Leadership Development for Local Government Executives: Balancing Existing Commitments and Emerging Needs Heather Getha-Taylor University of Kansas hgtaylor@ku.edu Ricardo S. Morse The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill rmorse@sog.unc.edu Paper prepared for presentation at the 2011 Public Management Research Conference June 4, 2011 Maxwell School, Syracuse University Abstract This paper examines the question of how leadership development in local government can address contemporary competencies that correspond with collaborative governance. The ascendance of collaborative governance across the field of public administration necessitates a rethinking of what the core competencies of public managers are and how they might be developed. Here we identify some of these core leadership competencies and examine the extent to which local government executives need to better develop them. We then turn to two local government executive development programs to explore different approaches to training for these emerging competency needs and the impact of those approaches on collaborative competency development.