ACL Leader in Focus- Goran Djuric

Goran is a highly experienced and talented Information Technology Management Professional with deep knowledge of information system, and project management and software and systems development. Throughout his career, Goran has worked as a software services manager, software development administrator, systems development coordinator, and programmer analyst. He has demonstrated capabilities in managing, scoping, developing, and implementing numerous types of municipal system applications and databases.

Throughout his career, he has demonstrated success in developing and implementing departmental business plans to achieve technology goals and objectives. He as delivered brilliant support for complicated or difficult issues, performed well with legal counsel to evaluate, and develop strategies to establish government regulations. I led a team of professionals to achieve companies’ goals and objectives. This background had a positive impact on my personal and organizational skills and helped me to obtain in-depth knowledge in the field.

How do you define civic leadership?

The ability to work in a community and inspire and empower employees to achieve success in their organization.

Why are you personally motivated to explore civic leadership?

My goal is to become a leader, not just a manager. I want to be able to lead people and manage the day to day operations. Having both these skills will make me a greater asset to the corporation

In your view, what’s the most important attribute of a leader?

I believe decision-making and accountability are the most important attributes of a leader. A leader should think long and hard before making a decision. Once a decision is made they should stand by it.

Describe an experience that demonstrated your leadership competencies. How did you make a difference? What did you learn from this?

When I started working for the City of Niagara Falls, I was involved in several projects. I observed the projects and noticed an issue with the property and addressing. There was no central source that determined legal properties. I was thinking strategically and looking at the big picture and explained to the team the potential issues going forward. We put the projects on hold and we developed a central source for properties and addressing. We continued with the projects afterwards and to this day all of the projects have been running successfully.

I learned that thinking conceptually about the “Big Picture” is important and developing long – term plans will help to ensure future success.