The Lycoming County Commissioners met on Tuesday, August 11th and announced they were not holding public meetings for the next two weeks to participate in County Commissioners of Pennsylvania training sessions. This particular meeting had a very long agenda of four pages, whereas a typical agenda would be about two pages. Much of the actions were personnel actions presented by Roxanne Grieco, Director of the Office of Human Resources. As soon as the thirteen changes in personnel were approved, the Commissioners Public Meeting was recessed, and the Salary Board was convened to approve updates to the Salary Schedule. The few attendees in the audience sat quietly, as all this seemed completely rudimentary.

However, truth be told, this was a significant leadership moment. Just as District Attorney Ryan Gardner has refashioned his department to make it more efficient and at the same time reduce expenses, the restructuring of personnel on the August 11th meeting was the result of work that had been initially started by Prothonotary Thomas Heap last year while he was director of Assessment/Tax Claim Bureau and Central Collections Office. This reorganization structure covers personnel in the prison, prothonotary office, assessment, and treasurer’s office. It took quite a bit of work to get it all this put together, but the hopeful end result will be (forgive the expression) more bang for the buck.

This is one of the reasons why this particular Lycoming County Commissioners Board had more going on than met the eye. The leadership they showed at that meeting was very quiet, to be honest, almost boring. However, what they did involved risk, disrupting the status quo temporarily for the sake of a long-term gain. That is what leaders do.

What is more typical of those in authority is to practice management. Management, by definition, manages a given system, process, facility, budget, etc. Managers try to get the most out a given resource. In the corporate world, management is the primary focus. Look at the courses taught in a typical business school; project management, human resource management, financial management, operations management, strategic management, etc.

The whole focus is to understand a system and get the most out of that system. Leadership, however, is quite different. By definition, it is to change that system to something that would function better. This becomes necessary in the time of crisis when the status quo has been disrupted, such as the times we are in right now. Almost everything in our society has been turned upside down. Those in authority must react to these conditions and point out a new direction.

Historically, great leaders are almost always those who lead through crises (e.g. President Lincoln during the Civil War, President Roosevelt through the Depression, etc.) But the more difficult leadership is not reactive, but proactive. This is where one in authority is willing to make changes without a crisis. They recognize that a change would improve the process or system. However, it is risky, because it involves going in an unknown direction. The problem with this, of course, is that it might be the wrong direction. It might not work.

That is why the vast majority of those in ‘leadership’ do not actually lead but manage. The safest way to go is to keep things the way they are. Better to be safe than sorry, that’s the saying, right? Living and maintaining the status quo is normal, seeking to look toward the future is much more difficult…and risky. If a new direction turns out badly, there will be plenty of naysayers who will question why the risk was taken.

Which brings us back to Commissioners Scott Metzger, Tony Mussare, and Rick Mirabito. Though they are from different political parties, they all have a leadership streak in them. And because they are willing to try a creative approach rather than a strictly managerial approach, directors such as Ryan Gardner and Tom Heap have endeavored to push the envelope out in a way others would not venture. The reduction of legacy costs by reducing personnel while still maintaining and even increasing efficiency is a benefit that will pay off for decades.

Leadership does not always dance in front of us, it can be very subtle like a series of line items on a Tuesday afternoon County Commissioners Meeting agenda. What a hollow world we would live in without leaders. These are the people with the attitude expressed by George Bernard Shaw and later used by Robert F. Kennedy, “You see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?’