On February 25th, the new Mayor of Detroit, the Honorable Mike Duggan, addressed the business community asking for guidance and help. As Newsmaker of the Year, Mayor Duggan (left in picture) spoke at Crain’s 28th Annual Luncheon and he used the opportunity to ask for support in the administration’s plans to rebuild the city.
I hope you’re still clapping for me like this a year from now,” he told the sold-out crowd of 800 at the Motor City Casino Hotel. “The city of Detroit is not as far away from being turned around as it looks.”
Michelle Ellis, Performance Consultant with Dale Carnegie of Michigan, was among the attendees and it is important to note many aspects of Mayor Duggan’s remarks focused on the Carnegie Principles:
- Leadership: The ability to lead change and train people to return to Detroit’s history of excellence is needed now more than ever.
- Communication: Open door policies across departments drive new opportunity and growth.
- Employee engagement: Relationship building among the city employees must happen in the efforts to share ideas and solutions.
- Culture: The cultural change from bureaucratic to involvement will be slow, yet center stage to all progress and success.
- Teamwork: Managers, supervisors, and workers want and need camaraderie in the efforts to achieve goals and objectives that build efficiencies and opportunities.
- Processes: Every aspect of the city, from what is done to what needs to be done, must be evaluated for value and worth, as the City of Detroit rebounds through residents, officials, and leadership.
It is paramount we repeat the earnest request of the Mayor as he reached out to the city’s top leadership: “If your company has as one of its core skills the ability to tear apart a core process and measure the outcome, we need your help,” he pleaded. “If you would, take one project — that could be part of something big like police response time or how we respond to water main breaks, which make no sense at all — sign up and come in for a month or two and work with our employees so we can train our own employees.”
The state of the city depends on all of us. And for that, Mayor Duggan is indeed Crain’s Newsmaker of the Year!
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Photo: David Hall, Crain’s Detroit Business
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