Aspiring CAOs

Are you considering taking the next step in your career to become a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)? Aspiring CAOs can become OMAA members by becoming an Associate under their CAO’s membership.  

Our Aspiring CAO Committee continues to develop tools to help you gain the essential qualifications, skills, and experiences needed for success. You can also gain insights from seasoned CAOs, explore tailored training programs, and find out how to navigate the complexities of municipal governance. Whether you're just starting out or looking to advance, we're here to support your journey towards becoming an effective and inspiring CAO. Start your path to leadership today!

The Pathway to Becoming a CAO

The CAO is the heartbeat of a municipality, ensuring smooth operations and effective governance. As the trusted advisor to the council, the CAO bridges the gap between council decisions and staff actions, transforming ideas into reality. While job descriptions, provincial legislation, and employment contracts outline the duties, they don’t fully capture the essence of what makes a great CAO. Aspiring to be a CAO means embracing a journey that blends education, extensive experience, specialized qualifications, and a diverse skill set. Success in this role requires continuous professional development, strong networking, and invaluable mentorship.

There is no single pathway to becoming a CAO. While having municipal experience certainly helps, some Councils look to hire individuals with private sector leadership experience. Others look for a balance. In terms of professional backgrounds, current CAOs include architects, clerks, economic developers, engineers, lawyers, librarians, planners, and many others.

A successful CAO is a dynamic leader with a unique blend of skills and attributes. Our CAO Profile provides 20 key competencies arranged into 5 leadership capabilities: (1) Achieves Excellence, (2) Adapts to change, (3) Adjusts to Ambiguity, (4) Aligns Interests, and (5) Anticipates Situations.  Each of key competencies is further broken down into career stages: beginning, mid-career, and experienced/ mentoring others. This CAO Leader Profile may be used for Leadership Alignment, Self-Assessment, or as a Coaching Aid. We hope you use it as a workbook as you progress through the various stages of your municipal career.

Members can download the CAO Profile in the CAO 101 page in the library. The library also contains a good practice CAO contract, evaluation toolkits, a range of policy documents, workshop proceedings, and many other resources. The webinar series that accompanies the profile is available to all on our YouTube Channel. 

Recommended Actions

1.      Make your career interests known to your current CAO.

2.      Network as much as possible.

3.      Build your skills in areas outside of your skillset. 

4.      Find a mentor.

5.      Build relationships with municipal recruiters.

6.      Be visible—join community groups, boards, professional associations.

7.      Develop your personal brand.

Educational Opportunities 

OMAA is pleased to offer a CAO Leadership Program with the #1 business school in the country, the Schulich School of Business at York University.

This five-day program offers sought-after leadership skills in areas like political acuity, digital transformation, problem solving, and data analysis to thrive in your role or move up the career ladder. The program is hosted in a convenient choice model of virtual or in-person and featuring top-rated Schulich instructors with guest appearances from practising CAOs.

The Queen's University Master of Public Administration (MPA) is a one-year, multi-disciplinary program for full-time students. The program prepares students at the entry and mid-career levels for leadership roles in public service and policy making. Graduates hold positions as senior officials in all three orders of government.

Western University's Master of Public Administration program integrates general knowledge of management techniques with the broader understanding of politics and the public sector which is essential for local government executives. The alumni of Western's Local Government Program include many of Canada's senior municipal officials.

York University's Master of Public Policy, Administration and Law (MPPAL) program provides students with a comprehensive, cutting edge education focused on social justice issues, public and administrative law, public sector ethics and human rights. The MPPAL is offered primarily as a part-time, executive program.

Find a Mentor 

Our Mentorship Match-Up program is a web-based platform that puts members in position to take advantage of mentor-to-mentee learning. The program helps Aspiring CAOs gain career-enhancing knowledge and insights on career paths they are following or may be considering. Mentees greatly value this opportunity to choose mentors and match themselves with the industry leaders they want to meet.  This program is offered from September to June and if free to all members and associates.

Municipal Recruiter List 

A very helpful step in advancing in your municipal career is to get to know what the market is currently looking for and to develop relationships with recruiters knowledgeable about the market.  While not necessarily exhaustive, the following list includes the more active recruiters in the Ontario CAO space:

Feldman Daxon Partners, Patrick Rowan, prowan@feldmandaxon.com

Legacy Executive Search Partners, Kartik Kumar,  Kartik.kumar@lesp.ca

Logic Executive Search and Workplace Solutions Jennifer Charron, jennifer@logicexecutivesearch.com

Odgers Berndtson, Margaret Campbell, Margaret.Campbell@odgersberndtson.com

Phelps Group, Heather Phelps, phelpsgroup@phelpsgroup.ca

Strategy Corp, Tony Haddad,thaddad@strategycorp.com

Waterhouse Executive Search, Jon Stungevicius, jon@waterhousesearch.net

Salary Information

Aspiring CAOs preparing to take on a CAO role should search through recent job postings to get a sense of the market rate for salary and benefits. The length of severance is also a very important consideration, and our good practise contract has some guidance on this topic. Another source of data is Ontario’s Sunshine List which can be filtered by position and employer. 

Tips for when you (are about to) become a CAO 

1.      Get legal advice on your contract. The exit clause is crucial.*

2.      Become active in OMAA and local CAO groups.

3.      Engage with your municipal peers.

4.      Continue to do all of things that got you here to be ready for the next opportunity.

5.      Continually engage with your Council members.

6.      Develop a personal development plan and make it know to Mayor & Council.

7.      Have Council agree to a performance review process and stick to it.

8.      Never stop learning and growing.

9.      Know your worth.

* Note: OMAA members can access the good practise contract and the CAO Profile in the Member Library.