How to build strong working relationships with members.
- truthaboutlocalgov
- Apr 30
- 5 min read
Updated: May 2
One of the most essential skills required to be an effective local government officer at any level is the ability to collaborate and build a strong working relationship with elected members. Councillors are elected and focus on representing the community, setting policies, and providing leadership. Whereas Officers are employed and focus on the practical implementation of policies, administration, and service delivery. Both roles are essential for the effective functioning of local government, with councillors providing the strategic direction and officers ensuring its execution.
It can be challenging, to operate in a political environment if you have not done so before, but developing the people skills to operate in a political organisation, building rapport and a functioning partnership with members can be challenging. However, it is most defiantly achievable.
The four key areas I would recommend officers working on to optimise their working relationship with elected members include:
Forming Relationships Early: Initiate relationship-building as early as possible, even during the campaign period. Early engagement helps establish trust and clarify roles.
Understand Motivations: Take the time to understand what drives your elected members. This can assist in anticipating their reactions and working more effectively with them.
Effective Communication: Employ clear and concise language. Regular meetings and updates can help ensure everyone remains aligned.
Respect Roles: Recognise and respect the different roles within the local government process. This mutual respect is fundamental for a productive relationship.
Look for and Understand Motivations
Elected members become elected members for a reason. Many are driven by a desire to improve and serve their communities. Some are motivated by specific issues, like transportation, development, or schools. Others are propelled by a certain morality or a sense of right and wrong. Understanding the underlying motivations of elected members is key to predicting how they will react to policy proposals, what positions they will take on issues, how they will receive information from you, and most importantly, how they will vote when their name is called.
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes." – William James
You can start to understand motivations by taking some simple steps: sign up for the elected members’ newsletter or follow them on social media; ask them what their residents are saying about a given issue; pay close attention to the types of questions they ask; and if appropriate, ask them directly from what viewpoint or angle they approach a given issue. You might be surprised with a candid and critically useful answer.
You can't just seek to understand others’ motivations and expect to be successful; you must also understand your own motivations. This applies at both micro and macro levels. When tackling a particularly complicated or politically charged issue, I always ask myself the following questions:
- Why are you making these specific recommendations?
- Why did you use the process you did to develop those recommendations?
- Why do you do what you do every day?
It’s hard to grasp the motivations of others without some awareness of your own.
Understand That They Are People
For all the ceremony and circumstance that can surround the life of elected members, at the end of the day, they are people. They have day jobs. They worry about whether they’ll make it to the gym that day. The most successful interactions I’ve witnessed between officers and elected members are when officers have (respectfully) levelled with them. People, including officers, can sometimes be reluctant to say what they mean, often out of a desire to not offend or rock the boat. Sometimes a little boat rocking is necessary.
Your elected members, while knowledgeable, might not be experts on every issue that needs a decision. They rely on you to give them the facts as well as the context so they can make informed policy decisions. A useful tip is to give yourself the chance to pause and ask yourself or a trusted colleague if your opinions or biases are exerting undue influence. It’s important to note that sharing facts perceived as “negative” by officers or others is just as important, if not more so, than being straightforward when presenting information. In the long run, being transparent with the full Council as a whole, and with the individual members, builds higher levels of trust and goodwill.
The need for consistency is incredibly important. Think of your relationship as a good will bank. For every action where you demonstrate integrity and communicate in a way that makes clear the respect you have for the individual, you deposit into your good will bank. There will come a point where you will need the member to trust you and that is when you need the credit that you have built up to really pay dividend.
Understand How They Prefer to Communicate
People have different communication styles. Perhaps one member is very direct or assertive with their communication while another is more passive. It is important to keep in mind that these communication styles can vary between audiences. You should observe how they prefer to communicate with other members, residents, officers and in public meetings. Developing a feel for each member’s communication style will allow you to adjust your own style to ensure mutual understanding. Watching two people talk past each other is difficult enough on its own and worse still when important policy decisions are at stake.
Being successful in this space means you have to take a good look at the communication styles you use, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and actively adjust them for a given situation.
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." – George Bernard Shaw
I recently asked a former Executive Director of Place of a large London Borough what styles they utilised and they said that they broadly speaking had two styles that they would default towards:
When they needed something specific or they were confident about something, they tended to be direct and transactional. This was effective because their intentions were clear and the member would know exactly what they needed. However, it didn’t always endear them to the people on the receiving end – it could come off as harsh and uncaring.
When they were unsure about a situation or decision, they tended to passively build consensus and consult with others. The strength here is that they leverage others’ experience to inform their decision or work but the weakness is that it is a slow process and they could come across as indecisive.
Understand What You Can Control
It may surprise you to learn that, up until the issue is placed on the table for discussion and action, you have control. On a given issue, you control your level of knowledge; you control how prepared you are to discuss and address questions; you control how you react to unexpected circumstances; you control how well you understand motivations; and you control the quality of information and context provided. You have to do your homework, and it is helpful to gather as much background information as possible to understand how the organisation got to where it is, why certain decisions were made, and what trajectory that places the organisation on.
Exerting the type of control I’m talking about requires a lot of preparation and a wide perspective. The inverse is also true, to lift a sentiment from Reinhold Niebuhr, you also must have the wisdom to know the difference between what you can and cannot control.
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