Leadership used to be so easy.

In the '40s a handful of white Charlotte businessmen and politicians known as The Round Table made public policy over lunch at Ivey's department store. The City Council privately decided contentious issues -- including a route for the new Independence Boulevard -- over dinner at a country club.

Today it's more complicated.

Social and economic changes, as well as sheer growth, are forcing public decisions to become more inclusive, and making consensus more elusive.

"There are so many more people you have to reach out to market an idea and gain support," says Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory. "And that takes a lot more time and effort than ever before."

Over the next 30 years the region is expected to double in size to 4 million people. Decisions both big and small will determine how it grows. They'll affect the quality of life and sense of community.

Strong communities have strong leaders, both political and civic. But as more people crowd the table for a voice in decisions, leadership faces new challenges. The big questions:

Who will lead? How can they lead effectively? And how can they work across city and county boundaries when local problems become regional ones?

In places such as Atlanta the answers have not been encouraging.

"Our leadership has sprawled just (like) our houses and our roads," says Sam Marie Engle, director of the Kenneth Cole Leadership Forum at Atlanta's Emory University. "There's a lot more sense of competition than cooperation. Counties are competing against each other rather than recognizing that they have common interests and concerns, that they're all part of one region."

Experts say leadership in such a fast-growing area requires special skills. Among them: having a clear vision and communicating and collaborating effectively with a diverse constituency.

In the Charlotte area, efforts are under way to build leaders who foster cooperation both within and among communities. New leaders are emerging. Others are learning new ways to lead.

Finding connections

Three years ago Michael De Vaul moved from Illinois to Highland Creek, a subdivision in the University City area with more than 7,000 people, many fellow transplants."I thought, `Holy cow, we've got to figure out a way to connect,' " says the 42-year-old De Vaul, who runs the University City YMCA.

Newcomers like him helped Mecklenburg County grow by 200,000 people in the past decade. Some are isolated by language, others in suburban enclaves. While older neighborhoods have had generations to develop leaders and connections, new ones often start from scratch.

Connections are few in University City, a collection of malls and subdivisions around UNC Charlotte. Many of its more than 100,000 residents drive cars with front vanity plates that tout not their college or city but their subdivision. There are nearly 200 neighborhood associations, but few leaders focused on the area as a whole.

De Vaul is among those trying to change that.

He co-chairs a leadership development program sponsored by Charlotte's Community Building Initiative. A diverse group of participants is getting to know one another and their community. By linking with each other, they're trying to build ties to the larger city.

"We're modeling what we'd like the community to be," says Ann Clark, the group's other co-chair and regional superintendent for Charlotte-Mecklenburg high schools.

Like much of the region, Charlotte prides itself as a meritocracy where ideas and energy are more important than bloodlines. Community leaders say the city embraces those willing to give back, no matter where they came from.

The University City program is one of several nurturing such people as leaders. Similar efforts, such as the Charlotte-based Lee Institute, bring together people from the region.

"By developing leaders at the grassroots level," De Vaul says, "we'll have more people involved in the building of Charlotte."

Business has many voices

For years business and leadership were synonymous in Charlotte.

"Charlotte," said a 1960 Observer editorial, "is run, primarily and well, by its Chamber of Commerce."

Years later CEOs such as Hugh McColl Jr., Ed Crutchfield and the late Bill Lee still made things happen with a phone call. Now their successors at the Bank of America, Wachovia Corp., Duke Energy and other companies have broader agendas competing for their attention. The banks are among the largest in the country; Duke has operations on five continents

"The CEOs and higher-ups are paying more attention to global issues than local (ones)," says Karen Geiger, director of the McColl Executive Leadership Institute at Queens University. "So someone needs to take care of the local community, and that's probably up to more of us now."

Wachovia chairman Ken Thompson agrees.

"It has to be people from all walks of life in this community because it is a bigger, more complex community than it was 25 years ago," Thompson says. "It's going to be cobbled together in a much more democratic way than it was."

Like the overall community, business is increasingly fragmented. Mecklenburg has separate chambers for Hispanic, Asian and African American businesses.

Umbrella groups such as the Charlotte Chamber are trying to embrace the diversity through seven area councils representing geographic parts of Mecklenburg. Business leaders know they're an important voice, but now one of many at the table.

"It's not the same game," says Chamber President Carroll Gray. "We've had to collaborate more."

That's also true in Anson County, where the influence of textile executives has faded along with their industry.

"You would have a few folks who were able and had the ability to make decisions for the community," says county manager Chris Wease. "But ... we (have to) engage those new (people as) leaders and get them involved in the process."

That's true within communities. And it's true between them.

Crisis forces cooperation

When Shelby's First Broad River ran dry for the first time in memory last year, leaders scrambled to find a new water source. With little choice, they turned to Kings Mountain. The Cleveland County towns put aside long-held turf battles and arranged to share water."We're sort of at the baby steps of trying to work within the different groups within our county as a step to looking beyond the county," says Betsy Fonvielle, a Shelby City Council member.

A lack of water, dirty air and crowded highways are problems not confined by political boundaries. That means that leaders have to work with others -- and even learn their names.

Voices & Choices, a non-profit regional planning group, recently convened public officials from Mecklenburg and a half-dozen neighboring jurisdictions to discuss a proposed greenway. Most leaders were meeting for the first time. At least one didn't know participant Tom Cox was chairman of the Mecklenburg commissioners.

Experts say to be effective, leaders increasingly must work together even while trying to win public support.

Over the past 50 years public votes on major Charlotte projects -- including arenas, the airport and the Mint Museum -- failed the first time they were put to voters. They passed only after officials reached out to build support and consensus.

"The more people who get involved, the better the final product," says Charlotte historian Tom Hanchett.

Harmony takes time

In fast-growing communities, consensus can be hard to find.

In 2001 Charlotte officials offered voters a referendum for a new arena. Hastily assembled, it was a complicated plan that bundled an arena with arts-facility projects. Business leaders backed it. So did most of the City Council and traditional community leaders. Voters rejected it, 57 percent to 43 percent.

McCrory says he and other supporters didn't do enough to reach "new Charlotte," newcomers congregated in suburbs. In some cases, he says, there's no time for consensus.

Last year, when the NBA promised Charlotte a new team if it built an arena, the City Council bought land and negotiated a contract -- all without a referendum. Critics fumed. But Carolyn Lukensmeyer, president of America Speaks, a group that fosters grass-roots decision-making, says leadership doesn't always require consensus.

"Citizens still want decisive leaders," she says. "They want leaders who will listen to all points of view. But they don't want leaders who always wait for consensus."

Decisiveness is something the Atlanta region could use more of, says Emory University's Engle.

"In some ways there are too many leaders," she says. "There are so many individual agendas."

For leaders, it remains a balancing act.

"Communications has become a much more integral part of leadership," says McCrory. "In one way it's a challenge. But in another way it's an opportunity."

Leadership Development

Here are some Charlotte-area groups that offer leadership programs.

• Leadership Charlotte: (704) 688-2888.

• The Charlotte Region Chapter of the American Leadership Forum through the Lee Institute: (704) 714-4454

• The Community Building Initiative: (704) 333-2595.

• The McColl Executive Leadership Institute at Queens University: (704) 337-2309.