Community leadership competencies in the Northeast US: implications for training public health educators

A survey was conducted to determine leadership competencies as perceived by 679 community residents (urban/rural) in six states of the Northeast United States. Respondents were asked to rate the extent to which it is important for a community leader to use each competency listed in the instrument. A factor analysis reduced the list of 39 competency items examined into nine distinct factors. Alpha internal consistency estimates revealed the strength of correlation among items in each factor. A series of one-way analyses of variance failed to show a significant difference between urban/rural community respondents' scores for each factor. The findings suggest specific leadership competencies which should be emphasized in training experiences. Conceptual competencies were identified as most important (problem delineation, organization, management of change, etc.), followed by human competencies (demeanor, empathy, attitudes) and technical competencies (budgeting, supervision, needs assessment) respectively. Items within each factor have implications for development of specific content areas in a leadership training curriculum for public health educators.