Developing Your Path Forward... DPW's have become City and County Executives

  • Differentiate the variances between leading a Public Works organization and a larger entity.
  • Describe the background skills and traits needed to become an agency executive.
  • Determine how Public Works leaders can advance to executive leadership.

Large agency focus is more on human and conceptual with less need for technical. Small agency have more technical focus while very small agencies have less concepts skill needs. Skills needed vary by size. This can be applied to DPW versus CM.


This was a presentation given by Harry Lorick and George Recktenwald at the 2017 Florida Expo. The topic was well received and involved interview 6 Directors of Public Works across the nation. The handouts for this presentation can be found at www.florida.apwa.net. If you have any questions on the information in this presentation, contact Harry Lorick at hlorick@laconsulting.com.