Derrick Niederklein - Building Good Work Cultures in Public Service

Property tax administration has always been about numbers, but after two decades in this business, I'm convinced our biggest challenges, and opportunities, lie with people, not spreadsheets. The recent market volatility has only amplified this truth.

The Trust Deficit Is Real

Twenty years ago, when I started traveling Nebraska checking assessor compliance, the public's questions were simpler. Today? Property owners arrive armed with Zillow estimates and social media theories about taxation. They're more aware of values but paradoxically less trusting of our process.

As Derrick Niederklein observed during our recent conversation, "Property taxes have been unpopular for 5,000 years." But here's what's changed: technology has democratized property data while simultaneously making our work more opaque to the average taxpayer. We can run more sophisticated models, but explaining them to an 80-year-old couple worried about their tax bill? That requires something algorithms can't provide.

The irony is stark. We have better tools, more accurate valuations, and tighter coefficients of dispersion than ever before. Yet public trust continues to erode. This isn't a data problem, it's a human one.

Building Teams That Actually Work

After 14 years with Nebraska's Department of Revenue and five years building the team at Lancaster County, I've learned that great assessor offices aren't built on software alone. They're built on aligned teams where everyone understands their role.

Government structure fights us here. Equal pay regardless of performance. Raises based on tenure, not contribution. And let's be honest, we train appraisers to develop and defend their positions, not collaborate. Put a room full of us together, and everyone thinks they're right.

But here's what works: connecting people to purpose beyond the paycheck. Niederklein shared that he's "hired a handful of people that actually took a pay cut" to join his team. Why? Because they found a culture of "security, growth, and fun" where they could do purposeful work.

The key is recognizing that everyone wants three things:

• A job that matters
• To feel valued
• To operate at their best

When you align roles with individual strengths and give people ownership over their piece of the puzzle, something shifts. The energy changes. And that energy, believe it or not, travels with your work product.

Why Conflict Happens (And How to Handle It)

Most workplace conflict stems from change and perceived loss of control. In assessment offices, it often manifests when:

• Two people compete for the same responsibilities
• Generational divides clash (dial-up veterans versus digital natives)
• Egos overshadow collaboration

The solution isn't eliminating conflict, it's channeling it productively. As Niederklein puts it, successful leaders must "think with your head and not your heart." Take a breath. Remember that behind every grievance is someone who wants to be heard and valued.

The most effective approach? Establish clear lanes for each team member while letting them chart their own path within those boundaries. Define the destination, but let your people figure out the route. This maintains individual agency while ensuring collective alignment.

The Generation Gap Is Our Opportunity

We're sitting on a powder keg of potential. Seasoned professionals with 30 years of hard-won experience. New talent bringing fresh perspectives and digital fluency. Too often, these groups eye each other with suspicion rather than recognizing their complementary strengths.

The veterans hold institutional knowledge you can't Google. The newcomers bring energy and innovation. Smart offices create deliberate collision points between these groups, mentorship programs, cross-generational project teams, structured knowledge transfer sessions.

Remember: "I've never met somebody that didn't want to be loved," as Niederklein observed. That applies whether someone's been filing ratio studies for three decades or three months.

Looking Ahead: Tech Won't Save Us

Yes, technology will continue advancing exponentially. Our models will get more sophisticated, our data more granular. But technology can't explain a valuation to a worried taxpayer. It can't build trust with a skeptical public. It can't navigate the delicate politics of local government.

The human element isn't just important, it's becoming more critical as our technical capabilities expand. The offices that thrive over the next decade will be those that invest as heavily in their people and culture as they do in their CAMA systems.

Key Takeaways

For Assessors: Your technical skills got you here, but your leadership skills will determine your office's future. Invest in understanding what drives each team member. Create a culture where purpose trumps pay disputes.

For Managers: Stop trying to control outcomes and start enabling your people. Define clear roles but allow autonomy within them. Remember that most conflict stems from change, address the underlying fears, not just the surface friction.

For New Professionals: "Invest in yourself," as Niederklein advises. Find what genuinely drives you about this work. If nothing does, that's valuable self-knowledge too. But if you find that spark, pursue it relentlessly.

The assessment profession faces real challenges, eroding public trust, generational transitions, technological disruption. But these challenges are fundamentally human, not technical. And that means the solutions lie not in better algorithms, but in better teams, clearer communication, and a renewed focus on the people we serve.

After all, we're not just producing numbers. We're maintaining the foundation of local government funding. That's work that matters, if we can just get out of our own way long enough to do it well.