In her 13 years at the Department of Elections for the City and County of Denver, including 7 as director, Amber McReynolds led an organizational transformation that resulted in dramatically improved voter turnout and lower costs. And in 2013 she was a key player in designing and passing a state law that has made Colorado a national model in elections. Her accomplishments are impressive, and she has a stack of national and international awards to prove it.
It would be easy to look at Amber’s list of achievements and write her off as some kind of superhuman Herocrat. And she certainly is. But after getting to know Amber, I also find her story to be relatable, and I think it contains lessons for anyone leading change from inside government. Here’s how she went from mid-level staffer in a dysfunctional environment to leading an award-winning department.
Amber’s first interactions with the Elections Department – in the hiring process – were less than encouraging. In her first interview for the supervisory position for which she was hired, the man who would later become her boss asked her, “aren’t you a little young for this job?” (She was 26, with a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and several years of director-level experience.) A few days later, the then-director kept her waiting an hour and half for her second interview. Then, sitting at her disheveled desk, the director proceeded to apply lipstick and mascara while asking Amber questions.
Despite these red flags, Amber accepted the job offer out of her passion for elections and an adventurous spirit. Quickly she saw that her interview experiences were, indeed, indications of trouble in the organizational culture, which was plagued by in-fighting, lack of resources, outdated technology, negativity and resistance to change.
Amber spent the next two years learning, observing and taking notes about problems and potential solutions in a notebook. She wrote down everything, from the security protocol to the customer service interaction, to the data, to the metrics, to the inefficiencies with paper, to the number of forms they could eliminate if they streamlined processes. She also made small changes that were within her purview.
Struggling with the culture, she made the case to attend a leadership training, highlighting how it would benefit the department and ultimately reflect well on the department’s leaders. They agreed, and the skills she gained helped her navigate the political environment. She also made connections with other employees throughout the city who were experiencing similar challenges, which bolstered her.
And then in the 2006 election there was a high-profile technology failure that led to a departmental shake-up. Several people were fired, including her supervisor (the one who had asked about her age in the interview). The debacle also led to a new governance model, including an elected clerk. During her first meeting with the clerk, she shared that she had been keeping a notebook of ideas for change for the past two years. The clerk was impressed.
With the support of the newly elected clerk and her credentials from the leadership training under her belt, Amber was promoted to an operational manager and then a few months later, to deputy director, where she served for over three years. A few years later, she became director. Over those ten plus years in leadership, she led not only innovations in election process and technology, but also internal culture change. Here are some lessons from her experience:
Model what you want to see. Amber strived to use open communication and honesty with her staff. She encouraged her staff to do the same, inviting them to share both the good and the bad news. If she made a commitment, she worked hard to make sure she delivered on it. If she couldn’t deliver, she was transparent and authentic about why not.
Create a flexible and professional work environment. Amber worked hard to institute flex schedules and a 4-day work week in the department. She also changed the performance evaluation process, making it an on-going, 12-month collaborative effort in which the employee and their manager work together on setting and monitoring goals (rather than an annual review).
Prioritize learning. Amber worked hard to always be open to new ideas from her staff and community, and she told her staff that they always needed to be learning as well. She brought in the city’s Peak Academy to train the department’s employees in process improvement, which empowered them to identify and fix inefficiencies. She also encouraged staff to attend training that was relevant for their responsibilities or would bolster their skills. This included Election Center certifications, technical training such as GIS and data analytics, and other specialized training.
Mentor and be mentored. Amber sought out opportunities to mentor interns, students and other young people she encountered. She saw this as part of the job, even though she did not always have strong mentorship from her own more-senior colleagues.
Don’t treat everyone the same. Amber got to know her staff as individuals and tailored her approach according to their personality. She had the team do “Strengthsfinder,” which gave them a point of reference and shared language to collaborate with one another.
Build trusting relationships with community members. With the newly elected clerk in 2007 and the new elections director, Amber helped to create an elections advisory committee comprised of community stakeholders from all walks of life and engaged it in the decision-making process. At first it was difficult for the department's staff to be vulnerable and open up its process to the committee. But over time they built strong relationships that helped to leverage big changes, such as the state election reform in 2013. Amber continued to expand this group and engage them in the operations of the department.
Be customer-centric. Amber's motto is “election policy and administration must be about who votes, not who wins.” She engaged voters directly and the people who work with them at the counter to better understand what needs to changed and how. She also recognized that to be customer-centric, she had to build a positive environment to support employees, so that they can best serve the customers. She encouraged her team to make process changes and suggest improvements proactively.
Amber’s superpower is how she relates to people: building relationships with her team and empowering them to do awesome work, building relationships with community members, centering customers, providing vulnerable leadership and humane management. It’s her people orientation that drove the transformational change. As Amber reflected on the passage of Colorado’s voting reform law in 2013,
“It was really those relationships that I had built that set the stage for us to be able to work together to get something done that was literally, still today, one of the most comprehensive election forums in the country. It's made Colorado one of the top states to vote, one of the top states for turnout and engagement, and one of the most secure states to vote. All of those things we built over time, as a community that made a commitment to the voters and put voters first.”
Many of us are in a hurry to make change. Like Amber, we sometimes enter jobs and are struck by the brokenness of the system and the toxic workplace culture that enables it to persist. We want to fix it immediately. Amber saw that, pushed through it, worked her way up, and changed it over the course of 13 years. When she left in 2018 to be Executive Director of the National Vote at Home Institute, she had been at the Denver Elections Department a third of her lifetime! We can either be depressed at the slow rate of change or inspired that when we do the right things over a long period of time, change can happen. I choose to be inspired.
