On Leadership: Getting the Political/Civil-Service Relationship Right

Getting big things done in government requires mastery of a multi-level chess game. One of its most important levels is the relationship with the civil service.

Mobilising civil servants behind a vision to transform a country is no easy feat. Few elected leaders take office with experience of commanding an organisation of thousands – or hundreds of thousands – of employees. Yet it is the civil service that does the heavy lifting on planning and executing new policies, as well as ongoing administration of everything else.

There is often an adversarial start to the relationship, but make no mistake: no political leader can deliver for citizens without the civil service.

When leaders aren’t getting what they need from the machinery of government, they can feel like they’re being thwarted, or even undermined, by bureaucracy. In some cases, it may be deliberate – but more often it’s the result of complex institutional challenges. Multiple ministries and agencies with conflicting mandates can all be implicated in one policy issue. Silos are a problem in every government, an institutional reality, not a reflection of ill will or laziness. Legal, regulatory and financial constraints can impede a bureaucracy’s ability to respond. The political side might interpret resistance to a new policy direction as recalcitrance (“But that’s the way we’ve always done it …”). However, in the civil service, the burden of existing policies and programmes cannot be ignored just because new ones are proposed. And capacities are always finite.

Bureaucratic logjams often cannot be resolved solely from within. They require the overarching authority of political leadership. Conflicts over resources or mandates, for example, are real issues and only top leaders can provide the direction to resolve them quickly.

Getting the relationship right takes a lot of work. The nature of the civil servant’s job frequently requires telling political leaders exactly what they don’t want to hear. It’s inconvenient, yet essential. Trust is required.

Our Framework for Political Leadership

At the Tony Blair Institute, we advise the political leaders we work with to develop a solid understanding of both the systems and the people they rely on to implement policies. Civil servants have probably been toiling for the previous government and will likely be doing so for the next one. Occasionally, projects they have worked on for years can be shuttered or undermined in the blink of an eye through a political decision. This calls for decisiveness and some humility on the part of leaders as they build trust with the civil service. Usually, many functions and entities must align between the decision-maker and the citizen when a new policy is implemented. An appreciation for that range will ultimately contribute to leaders making better decisions.

When big things get done in government, it is a result of teamwork between political and bureaucratic players. Leadership of that team is a distinctly political responsibility. As our Executive Chairman Tony Blair advises in his book On Leadership, “Energise it with clarity of direction and purpose and the system will adjust and reorient – and will do so quite happily”. But, he warns, avoid chaos and the absence of grip: “These are the things which awaken bureaucracy’s inner inertia.”

So how should a leader approach this responsibility? There is no Uber-for-policy app. It doesn’t arrive on your doorstep just because you ordered it.

TBI’s approach to advising elected leaders – focusing on strategy, policy and delivery, all driven by technology – drives a political narrative that (among other strengths) feeds a healthy relationship with a country’s civil service. That narrative tells internal and external audiences what the priorities are, how they are rooted in a mandate from the people, what actions the government is taking and the tangible results people will see. Internally, the narrative helps motivate and align civil servants in support of the agenda.

Our framework is rooted in the real-world experience of TBI’s expert advisors, drawn from years of supporting political leaders in government. The following principles reflect what we’ve seen work – and what will help you lead this relationship for impact.

1. Be clear and focused in your purpose – the civil service thrives when the direction of government is clear.

The approach starts with a strategy that articulates vision, values and clear priorities. It should help tell the story of why the leadership sought power, and why the voters granted it. Priorities need to be compelling and they need to be few.

Having too many priorities, or constantly shifting priorities, leads to confusion and a platform for the status quo. Change requires time and focus, so if the focus is in flux then the civil service cannot execute. Having too many priorities also results in overlaps in responsibility, requiring continual consultation and bureaucratic process. Here’s the hard truth: the inability of a civil service to implement change is often due to the political leadership’s inability to focus.

2. Make policy development a symbiotic relationship between political ambition and policy experience.

While setting priorities is an inherently political responsibility, the development of policies to achieve them usually requires joint effort with the civil service. TBI advises leaders to establish clear roles in the development of policy, which in turn fosters trust.

The civil service should be ready with expertise, analysis, data and knowledge – drawing on decades of experience in what works and what doesn’t – and it should be empowered to deploy those assets.

This lived experience, however, can lead to risk aversion and legacy thinking that conflict with the ambitions of political leadership and its drive to innovate for citizens. In settings where technical, managerial or innovative capacity is lacking in the civil service, part of the political leadership’s responsibility is to secure it elsewhere and incorporate it effectively.

The political side of the partnership must be active in policymaking. It must define precisely the problem to be solved (which is too often muddled) and understand the inevitable political trade-offs when resources are limited (which is almost always). Winners and losers are created as policy is shaped, so design choice has political implications.

Successful policymaking demands both engagement and collaboration at the political and civil-service levels to get to the right solutions.

3. Ensure a sustained focus on delivery.

Nothing is more inspiring than turning a grand vision into reality. But it’s tough converting great ideas into wins on the ground. Success depends on the ability to manage relationships with those who will be at the forefront of delivering that plan.

TBI’s delivery approach aligns the political and bureaucratic players in a productive relationship. Political leaders need to care about implementation as much as – or even more than – their vision. They will rely on many others, from ministers down to the frontline professionals, so they must engage in the delivery process and allocate precious time to solving the inevitable problems that arise on the journey. They should, for example, address logjams caused by conflicting mandates or resource mismatches that can only be resolved with their unique, whole-of-government authority.

To this end, political leaders with ambitions for change should engage their machinery of government early and not simply accept the structures they inherit. Clarity of roles and responsibilities – as they correspond to political leaders’ priorities – is critical. Leaders should look sceptically (especially early in a mandate) at the often-convoluted processes in place and rethink how to optimise design, delivery and tracking/monitoring of the biggest priorities. This includes eliminating mandate overlaps, creating efficient collaboration mechanisms for cross-ministerial programmes and simplifying reporting and decision-making processes.

Trust Drives Teamwork … and Results

There are powerful dynamics working against successful teamwork between political leaders and civil servants everywhere. Governments are struggling to get things done and citizens are losing confidence in them. In the social-media era, leaders are distracted from governing, caught up in an all-consuming, non-stop campaign mode. The resulting short-termism is corrosive to the political-bureaucratic relationship and to the capacity of government in general.

This is why a relationship of trust is so important. If both sides take the time to understand each other’s ambitions, strengths and constraints, solutions can be found and sleeves rolled up in teamwork. With clarity of purpose, roles, direction and delivery plans, the whole system can operate as one team. Political leaders have enough distractions from the outside world; they don’t need more from within. If they invest the time to set up the relationship and the system for success, everyone can focus on what matters most: delivering for citizens.

Our Credentials

Brian Bohunicky, a TBI Senior Advisor, was formerly a civil-service executive and senior political advisor in Canada.

Philip O’Callaghan is TBI Global Director for Strategy, Policy and Delivery, and former Deputy Chief of Staff to Leo Varadkar, former Taoiseach of Ireland.

Quote from Tony Blair taken from his 2024 book On Leadership: Lessons for the 21st Century.