Public managers are a key component of a bureaucracy. The reliance on a public manager by an elected official is high as is the expectations that these managers have the necessary skills to manage a public organization. The goal of this study was to explore what elected officials perceive are skills needed by managers to lessen the impact on the human resource, financial, and political challenges when faced with significant change efforts in order to meet their expectations and that of the citizens to whom the organization is responsible.Findings indicate that managing upward and managing the political impacts are within the necessary skills required by a public manager as is the ability to manage interpersonal relationships to overcome the human resource challenges of a public organization. In addition to the human resource challenges, public managers face financial and political challenges (McGuire, 2002) to managing effectively. In order to overcome those challenges and accomplish any transformational changes (Rothwell et al., 2009) a public manager must hold themselves to a high standard of values that includes honesty, integrity, consistency, and accuracy. A public manager must also have, in addition to interpersonal skills, an ability to negotiate, act quickly and decisively, think strategically, and provide accurate data.
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