Preparing Our Frontline Teams for Public Scrutiny

There is a part of working in local government that we don’t always talk about enough.

Being visible.

Across councils and local governments, we have passionate, capable and highly skilled people working directly with our communities every day. They are the people answering questions, delivering programs, managing facilities, supporting community groups, coordinating events, working in libraries and galleries, and having the conversations that shape how people experience their local government.

They are often the face of council.

And with that visibility comes something that I think we need to prepare our teams for much more deliberately:

public scrutiny.

When we recruit and train community-facing teams, we understandably focus heavily on skills.

Do they have the technical knowledge?

Can they deliver the program?

Can they manage the facility?

Can they work effectively with community?

Can they communicate?

Can they solve problems?

All of these things matter.

But there is another skill set that can sometimes be overlooked: how to navigate being publicly visible.

The reality of community-facing roles

When you work directly with community, you are often the first person to receive feedback.

Sometimes that feedback is wonderful.

People tell you how much they loved an exhibition. A family thanks you for a program that made a difference to their child. A community group acknowledges the support they’ve received.

And sometimes the feedback is difficult.

People may disagree with a programming decision.

They may be unhappy about an event.

They may question a decision you have made.

They may criticise a service, a facility or an outcome that is actually outside your control.

And sometimes, that criticism can become very public.

For people working in highly visible roles, the line between criticising a decision and feeling personally criticised can become very blurred.

This is particularly challenging when people genuinely care about their work.

The irony is that the qualities we value most in community-facing teams, passion, commitment, pride and care , can also make criticism feel particularly personal.

I experienced this early in my career

Early in my career, I managed galleries.

I had the skills. I understood curation, exhibitions, programming, events and gallery management. I was confident in my ability to do the job.

What I wasn’t prepared for was the level of scrutiny that could come with making decisions in a highly visible community-facing role.

Decisions about exhibitions.

Programming choices.

Events.

What was included.

What wasn’t included.

Who was represented.

What people believed a gallery should be doing.

I quickly learned that when you work in a public-facing cultural role, people don’t always separate you from the decisions you are responsible for making.

Looking back, I don’t think the answer was that I needed to develop a thicker skin.

The answer was that I needed better preparation.

I needed to understand that public scrutiny was part of the role.

I needed the tools to navigate difficult conversations.

And I needed leadership around me that understood the particular pressures of being highly visible to the community.

That experience has stayed with me.

Preparing people is a leadership responsibility

As I’ve moved into leadership, I’ve become increasingly conscious of this gap.

If we know that a role is going to involve significant interaction with the public, then preparing someone for that role shouldn’t stop at technical skills.

We should also prepare them for the realities of being visible.

That might mean training around difficult conversations and conflict.

It might mean helping people understand how public feedback works and what is, and isn’t, their responsibility.

It might mean mentoring people through their first difficult experience rather than waiting until something goes wrong.

It might mean having clear escalation pathways so frontline staff know when something needs to be passed on.

And importantly, it means regularly checking in with people.

Not just:

“How is the program going?”

But:

“How are you going?”

Because the person who has just spent the afternoon receiving complaints, criticism or challenging feedback may need a very different kind of support from the person sitting in an office who hasn’t had those interactions.

We shouldn’t wait for something to go wrong

One of the things I think we can do better in local government is move from a reactive approach to a preventative one.

We shouldn’t wait until someone has received a particularly difficult piece of feedback, had a complaint escalate, or become overwhelmed before we start talking about public scrutiny.

It should be part of the preparation from the beginning.

“This is a public-facing role. People will have opinions about the work you do. Some of that feedback will be positive, some will be challenging, and sometimes it may feel personal. Here’s how we will support you.”

That conversation alone can make a difference.

Because when people understand that scrutiny is a normal part of the role, it can help them distinguish between feedback about their work and criticism of their worth.

And when leaders acknowledge the reality of that exposure, staff know they don’t have to navigate it alone.

Protecting the people who represent us

There is a broader leadership responsibility here too.

Our frontline teams are often the people who build relationships between local government and community.

They are the people residents know by name.

They are the people who show up.

They are the people who listen.

They are the people who sometimes have to communicate decisions they didn’t make.

And they are often the people standing in front of the community when emotions are high.

That makes them incredibly valuable.

But it also makes them vulnerable.

Supporting these teams isn’t about shielding them from all criticism. That’s neither realistic nor desirable.

Community feedback is important. Accountability is important. Listening when something isn’t working is important.

But accountability shouldn’t mean leaving individual staff members to absorb the impact alone.

Our role as leaders is to create the structures, training, mentorship and culture that allow people to do difficult public-facing work well — while knowing that there is support behind them.

The question we should be asking

When we prepare someone for a community-facing role, perhaps we need to ask more than:

“Do they have the skills to do the job?”

We should also ask:

“Have we prepared them for what it feels like to be visible while doing the job?”

Because public scrutiny isn’t an unexpected side effect of working with community.

For many frontline local government roles, it is part of the job.

And if we know that, then preparing people for it shouldn’t be an afterthought.

It should be part of good leadership.

It should be part of good management.

And most importantly, it should be part of how we look after the people who spend their working days looking after our communities.