By Luke Fischer

Several years ago, when I first started as a new city administrator in Watertown, I joined a politically stable organization that had decades of collective experience sitting around the council dais. But, coming into the first election, only two incumbent council members had filed for reelection — and I had only been on the job for a couple of months. I quickly found myself thrust into a position marked by uncertainty. What would my newly elected bosses be like? What were their priorities? Are we still going to proceed with the downtown project? How are we going to make all of this work?

Our long-serving Mayor KJ McDonald won his reelection handily, and proved to be an important mentor to me and a stabilizing force inside the organization as it wrestled with questions about what change might mean.

I’ll never forget one of our new council members, who had run on a platform of reform and transparency, riddling staff with questions about our routine business at his first council meeting. I felt like the core of what we did was under attack. After the meeting, I talked with KJ about the questions, how they made our city staff feel, and what we should do about it. I was hoping he would offer to intervene — but he did not.

Instead, he reminded me that this newly elected person was doing precisely what he had run to do and that there may even be some legitimacy to the questions he was asking. Further, he offered that the person asking the questions might not be the only one who was curious about our business and that perhaps we had some work to do bringing people along.

As KJ and I talked about our new council leaders, it became clear we hadn’t done enough to prepare our organization for change in the months leading up to and following the election. We should have. After all, we knew we were welcoming three new people to the organization.

Now, the results of this most recent election are possibly creating a mix of emotions among those where you live, work, or serve. These emotions can run the gamut of affirming to disappointing, exciting to daunting. Even if you’re only welcoming one new leader to your organization, it is important that you put in the work now to prepare your organization for change and to set everyone up for success.

KJ shared some important lessons with me that I think are still relevant today.

Recognize the community’s voice expressed through elections. Elections give us the chance to hear directly from the community about the direction of our work. It is essential to remember that people who get elected to office do so with the support of a plurality of those who live in your community. Give new officials credit for the perspectives they bring.

During this time of transition, determine what needs to be decided now and what can wait. New leaders need time to learn the organization and understand long-standing priorities. It takes time for everyone to develop a knowledge of how things work, what needs to be done, and why previously long-standing priorities remain long-standing priorities.

Engage with new leadership and welcome them. Everyone wants to be part of something and you have a role helping newly elected folks to know they belong. The work you do to help connect people between now and when new council members are sworn in will pay off almost immediately.

Set everyone up for success. Whether or not you agree with positions new council members may have taken during the campaign, take time to set everyone up for success. This means making space to hear their ideas, helping them see around corners, and connecting them with information that will make their jobs easier.

I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but those lessons from KJ proved to be invaluable while I was in Watertown. During my tenure as city administrator, I had the chance to serve with something on the order of three different mayors and 11 different council members in just three and a half years. Talk about change! Adapting my mindset to embrace the new folks made a world of difference for the election transition, and enabled us to accomplish good results as a working team.

Luke Fischer is executive director of the League of Minnesota Cities. Contact: [email protected] or (651) 281-1279.