Interview with Shane McFarland November 21, 2019

Sarah Brackin: Um to get started could you just tell me your name and a little bit about what you do?

Shane McFarland: Yeah, My name is Shane McFarland, I'm mayor of the city of Murfreesboro. Um I've been mayor since 2014, uh we in Murfreesboro we have what is called a council manager form of government. So we have a mayor, six council members, and we are really over more of the the big picture items within the city and the city manager uh handles all of the day to day operational stuff. So we have roughly about 1000 employees in the city. Uh the city manager is responsible for a majority of all of those employees. And then we are really responsible for the policy procedures, you know how we handle policy and things we want to see in the city, and then the city manager implements those.

SB: Okay, and what part of your personal biography and background led you to that position

SM: You know um, I, really going back I was student body president at Middle Tennessee State University where I went uh went to college and then started out in 2000 on planning commission and um really have always been involved in in some portion of whether it is student government or some type of leadership position. And uh you know wanted uh Murfreesboro is such a growing community. Murfreesboro is the 13th fastest growing city in the country, the fastest growing city in the state of Tennessee. Uh and really wanted selfishly to make it uh continue making the city a good place for my family to live.

SB: Okay, and what experiences, um so far do you think has most shaped you as a leader?

SM: Um, I don't know if I could really point to a specific you know instance, but I think being a small business owner has really helped. You know the mayor of Murfreesboro is a part time position. You know I think you you learn from how you handle your, your business. You know I was not really brought up in what I'd say a government um background, so you know all the experiences I've gotten has been through um really just through life lessons. So I, one of the things I'd say is the most important when you start looking at different experiences and what you have done and how you handle things. You know I have tried my hardest to be able to surround you know surround myself with people who are smarter than me on different levels that uh, or areas in things I don't know about. And you know for instance I couldn't tell you how to fight a fire, I couldn't tell you um, you know how to handle different policing situations, but you know we have to make sure we have good leaders from the standpoint of having a fire department and police department, city manager and I think that's in my opinion what is uh the most important thing about being a leader is understanding that you can't do it all by yourself and that you have to have help and surrounding yourself with people who share that same goal I think is paramount in making sure that you are able to lead an organization.

SB: And um, what obstacles and challenges have you faced and learned from and kind of shaped how you lead?

SM: Well, I mean the first one you know I was the youngest mayor to ever be elected in the city of Murfreesboro I was 38, 39. And um, you know that already comes with some disadvantages in being in leadership positions because you're already battling views that people don't think you know what you're doing or that you have not had those life experiences to be able to make decisions, so I think that's you know that already puts you at a disadvantage but what you hold to be able to do is to again, is have the experiences that you fall back on to help you make those choices. So, you know I can't give you a specific instance but you know as for as challenges I think you know the first thing you're dealing with the perception that you are inexperienced um, but then you know what you quickly find out is that you know to be a leader people will follow you whenever you feel like you're including people in those discussions. I've had success making sure that we have people buy into the direction that we want to head. I think that um, that really helps some of those challenges go away. Now a specific instance, back in October of 2018 or '17, uh we had a racist uh white supremacy group that you know decided they were going to come into Murfreesboro and hold a rally, and you know that I would say as far as having to make decisions that you know were literally people putting their life on the line I think that was the toughest thing I've dealt with so far.

SB: And what did you do with that? Like how did you deal with that situation?

SM: You know so in that case, um this is right on the hill of what had happened in Charlottesville, and you know I don't know if you've heard this saying "you can't fix stupid" and you know these groups that no matter you know what we would have done, they want to come in and cause havoc so what we did was you know because of your your first amendment rights, you know no matter how much I hate what these groups say, they everyone has a right to their opinion. Now, the tough thing for us is whenever they are wanting to do it all on public grounds we didn't feel like legally that we had a right to limit someone's speech no matter how much we hate it and at the same point we had a lot of people telling me "hey you need to ban this group from coming in." So the final decision that was made was if we tried to ban a group coming in and we are going to be dealing with every single nut job group that want to come in every weekend hoping that we would ban them so they could sue the city. So we made the decision that we work with the county and we said you know you can come, you can say whatever you want to say but we went through all these different protocols that we did to allow that and you know it ended up being sort of much ado about nothing and the way we handled that ended up being the model now that the country is using to be able to handle these situations.

SB: Um, do you ever find it difficult manag-like balancing your business and your role as mayor?

SM: Yes, um you know when I first got elected I thought it would be a lot easier, um but you know the difference between being mayor and I was a council member for eight years it seems like everyone wants to know exactly where you stand as mayor before they start bringing things to the council members. So, that does take some time. I mean luckily I've got a great staff that helps with city stuff and my work stuff but you know I am not independently wealthy so I have to work and um it's a balancing act to make sure that you can handle both of those. But it is uh tough, I mean yes it is, it is tough.

SB: Yeah, and um what would you say leadership means to you?

SM: I mean I, I have always tried to go by, especially in politics, local politics is so much different than national politics. I see what is going on at the federal level right now and I just wonder why anyone would want to be involved in that and uh you know so I think that you go in from the leadership position and you just want to do what is the right thing. When you know that something that you are trying to do is the right thing, um I mean it's tough being a leader and it would be easy just to go along with what everyone else wants to do. Being a leader means that you have to make the unpopular choices and sometimes you have to make decisions that you know people are not going to agree with, that you have to feel that you are firm in your convictions that you know the decision that you are making with the information you have at the time is the right decision and um, you know if I had to say one thing about being a leader is I think you have to be steadfast. You have to be uh, convicted in what you are doing and you're the type of person that you are going to move back and forth you know no matter, which every direction the wind blows I-I find that you end up making poor decisions when you do that.

SB: Yeah, that's funny because I actually um, I just wrote a paper over Paul Volcker and how he like stuck with his decisions even though he was kind of like hated by the public and so that's funny that you say that because that's how I described like an ideal leader in my paper too.

SM: You know it has taken me four or five years to actually get to where I feel comfortable being mayor. Um, and I-I you know in my heart I am not someone who really enjoys a lot of conflict, but what I have learned is that you can't be afraid of conflict in these positions and I don't think you go and seek-seek out trying to make people mad, but at the same time um you have to make decisions and you have to let people know where you stand. And I mean just like the white, that white rights rally, I had a guy on the square, we shut down the entire square, and I had a guy after that was over with send me a text message and I feel safe with the message you know because he sent me this message that said "hey I'm not sending you this to be able to you know kiss your butt, but when everyone else was saying you shouldn't do this you held firm to what you thought was the right decision, and even though there were a lot of people that didn't agree with it, you made that decision and it was the right one." So, that's really what I would say, you know you are not judged on being a leader on how you do right now. You are judged on being a leader with the decisions you make after. And I think the most important thing to do, I say the most there are a ton of important things, you can't be afraid to admit when you made a mistake. Uh, because you are not always going to make the right choices. And you know I see politicians who when something goes wrong they just want to point the blame to someone else and very rarely do you see someone as a political official that says, "hey we screwed up we got that one wrong," and um we make mistakes. So, you got to be able to when things are good it's great get the credit, but when things are bad you got to own it at the same time.

SB: Right. Um what would you say your professional strengths are and your professional weaknesses are?

SM: Um, you know professional strengths I'm pretty detailed. Um, I feel like I'm a good judge of character that I've had the opportunity to feel comfortable surrounding myself with people who I think are good people. I mean like the staff who work with me in my full time job, you know they have all been with me for 8, 10 plus years. Um, so I think that's being able to be a good surround yourself with good people. The negative part, and I think this is with any leader, you are always second guessing um and you have this internal doubt that you're really afraid to fail--

SB: MhmmSM: Um, I've gotten better that I, you know I am always worried about what other people think of me. I've gotten a lot better on that because you know not being from a cocky standpoint, but I'm basically just saying hey I don't, you know I have to make this decision here and if somebody gets mad about it, I've gotten better at that. You know you have to be humble when you do that, I'm not saying you make someone mad, but being self-aware and self-confident is something- is a weakness um that you know you don't like anyone saying bad things about you on social media, so I've gotten better at being able to block some of that out and make those decisions.

SB: Right yeah social media is uh really, really big now

SM: Yeah and I think that with anything in the political world. You know I started in 2006 as an elected official, I started in 2000 you know before that. Um, but out of anything that has changed you know I think politics, in my opinion for the worst is social media because you've lost the interaction with people, you've got people who are uninformed on um, you know they are trying to get their information from 140 characters on twitter and they are not taking the time to educate themselves on issues.

SB: HmhmmSM: So I think, I think that's really um, you know I said this to a group I was speaking to the other day, whoever our elected officials are whether it's at a federal, state, or local level. I mean I would hope, I want our elected officials to be smarter than we are on the things they are dealing with. I mean I don't know what all is going on at the state or federal level, but I sure hope the people that I voted for know more about it than I do. And, that's really um you know the issue that we've got right now is to make sure people are educating themselves on you know what the true, the true issues are.

SB: Right, um who has been your biggest like influence or inspiration so far?

SM: I-I, I mean my biggest as far as my biggest fan, or you know my best friend is by far my wife. Um, I mean she knows the good, the bad, and the ugly. Um, she's also you know she knows when it's the time to you know push to me and say it's time to suck it up, and she knows the time when it's the time to pat me on the back. You know as far as an inspiration, you know I didn't get into this because one-person sort of inspired me to do something, um I got into it because I felt it was the right thing to do to help make the community better. As far as someone who I look up to, um you know my dad did not go to college. Um and my dad was not a mechanic, he drove a truck uh a coal truck and then got a job at a bank as a teller and worked his way all the way up to be uh to be the vice president at the bank. So, you know my dad and my mom both are the ones who, I have a twin brother, and I think they both instilled in Sean and I, you know you have to treat people the right way. So um, I think that they would be two of my biggest influences.

SB: Yeah I can definitely relate to that I feel the same way about my parents too.

SM: Yeah no doubt. You know with your parents you think that you're growing up you know as a kid you love them then you start getting into high school and other areas you-you think they are the dumbest people you've ever met.

SB: Haha right.

SM: And then all of a sudden they start getting a lot smarter whenever you get into college and you're like wow they did know what they were talking about.

SB: Yeah, and then you want to be them

SM: That's exactly right.

Sarah: Um so you mentioned making the community better and it kind of goes along with my next question, um which is that leaders help to turn ideas into action and empower others. So how do you accomplish this?

SM: Um, you know I think you have to get everyone bought into the direction that you want to go. And uh, you know normally whenever I see something that I feel like that needs to be done better in the community you've got to make sure that you get everyone bought in on it. So, you know a lot of times you turn into being a sales person and you've also have to turn into being able to explain to everyone exactly why you think uh something should be done. So, you end up being a sales person um a lot of the time.

SB: MhmmmSM: And you know I believe people will follow you when they are bought into the direction that you want to go. So, um you can do something that is super important.

SB: Right, um so do you feel that it is important to delegate and if so why?

SM: Oh um yeah!

SB: AhahaSM: Haha I mean like hey I'm a part-time mayor so there is absolutely no possible way that, um that you know you have to be able to delegate. That goes back to that whole thing I was telling you earlier about making sure you surround yourself with good people. I mean that is a nonnegotiable. I mean and I think you know your mom and dad will probably tell you the same way. I mean you cannot do it all yourself. So, you I think one of the biggest traits of being a good leader is making sure that you, that you can get the quality people that you need to surround yourself with.

SB: Mhmm, right because you can't do it on your own.

SM: No, no no

Sarah: Um, how do you measure your success and how do you learn from your failures?

SM: You know I probably would say I don't ever look back. I'm not a resume person, I don't ever look back and say you know hey I did this, I did that. I think you measure your success by one how successful the people around you are. Uh, you measure your success on how your community is by a mayor's standpoint. And then I think your failure you try not to dwell on the things you fail on. Like I mean I really couldn't tell you, I mean I could tell you things that I screwed up that I wish I could have done better. So you try to learn from that that to not make the mistakes again, but I don't ever dwell on hey you messed up this you messed up that. So you know, I think and then personally you know my success is really going to, you won't see how successful you are as mayor for ten years. I mean you just don't, you won't know, but I really end up taking from a personal level you know my success is going to be how I look back and I see how my kids do, and so that's the most important thing to me.

SB: Mhmm, um what would you say two or three action steps you believe are essential to helping others become successful as well?

SM: Uh humility. I mean teaching people humility and teaching people service. I-I mean you know it's it's a cliché, but you know teaching people that you want to be treated the way you treat someone else. I mean that really is that's what we try to do, even on our business side that I mean I think those are by far the most important things you can do.

SB: We talked about humility a lot in our class.

SM: Yeah I mean it, I don't think you, I mean you look at the federal level right now and I think it would be nice if humility was across the board hahaSB: Yeah

SM: I mean it's something that we would all like to see.

SB: Um do you have any advice for building relationships and trust in an organization?

SM: I mean people don't trust you if they don't like you. I mean I say this from a standpoint of if people feel like that you don't care for them from the standpoint of that you truly want to see what's the best for them and that you don't have any ulterior motives, um you're I mean you you can't build that relationship. So, I mean the first thing you have to be able to do is to build relationships. I mean even when I'm on the job site you know when I see someone the first thing I ask is you know "hey how's your family?" or you know "how are you doing?" I mean it's not screaming, yelling at people, which sometimes I wish we had to do that, we have to do that more. Uh so, anyway I think hopefully uh you have to invest in people, and I mean I think that's the way you build that trust and you build that work ethic is by investing in not only your employees, but investing in the people you work with.

SB: And my last question is what do you want your legacy to be?

SM: Uh my kids. I mean you know that's my legacy. I mean all the other stuff goes away. So, I mean I don't, I could care less whether they name a bridge after me or they name you know whatever after me. Um, I mean my kids are my legacy. That's, I think if you ask your mom and dad they'd tell you the same thing.

SB: Right

SM: So, that's um you know long after I'm gone my kids will be here and you know what they teach their kids I hope I had a part in that.

SB: Well thank you so much for your time I really appreciate it

SM: No problem! Save my cell phone. Call me anytime.

SB: Okay sounds good thank you so much