One of the best ways to think about something in a new way is to listen to someone's voice besides your own. Anthony Romanello (Stafford County, VA) and Michael Willis (New South Wales, Australia) offered their perspectives on building good relationships with councils. What would you add to this list?

--A key tool to making things happen is to act as a "chief empathy officer." Provide your council information that is useful and/or that you think is important for them to have.

--"We are a learning organization" is code for "we make mistakes," which is fine as long as you learn from the  mistakes. If you do make a mistake, be sure to let your council know your plan to recover from it.

--It's okay to have [negative] feelings about a council member. What's important is the action you take toward that person--the situation will dictate whether the best strategy is avoidance, engagement, or even, at times, confrontation.

--Councilmembers are like relatives--you can't pick them, you just have to learn to live with them.

--If you find your council in the weeds, pay attention to the message behind that: it's because the council doesn't trust what's going on in the weeds.

--Even small victories can build cohesion in a governing body.

--Always do the right thing--legally, ethically, morally. Always take the higher ground.