It isn’t always possible to be confident in the ordinary sense of the word. Even the most self-confident of people are going to be assailed by doubts on occasion (public speaking, anyone?) – they would be hardly human if they weren’t. Mind you, Lillian Hellman definitely has a point when she said “It’s best to act with confidence – no matter how little right you have to it.”
Interestingly, though, the leadership statement isn’t about this kind of confidence. Rather, it’s about confidence in our engagement.
It’s about the confidence to look facts and situations squarely in the face and to communicate what they are telling us clearly. It’s about the confidence to praise the good and to call out the bad when we see them.
Confident advice
Experience of Ministers, I think, tells us that they really want to see confident advice – confidence in the distillation and isolation of the main points in issue, rather than taking refuge in endless pages of drafting. Spending the last ten percent of your time really thinking about and expressing clearly the real messages and decisions is something we don’t sometimes have the confidence to do.
And lastly, there’s a reason that confidence is part of the leadership statement. As public sector leaders we are engaged in greatly more complex areas with many more dimensions than you find in the private sector, and it naturally places a premium on consultation, analysis and, often, compromise. That is all fine, and we do need to have the confidence to listen and adjust our views in this environment. But we need to have the confidence to actually lead.
When we have done the preparation, the people we work with have the right to expect us to set direction and take the decisions that mean we’re making progress. And often that will be about listening to messages that our own experience and instinct are sending us, and having the confidence to trust them.
I’ve had lots of bosses over the years; indeed, in one three year period I had eleven of them (some message, there, perhaps …). I didn’t much like the ones that I thought were wrong – but I preferred them to the ones who didn’t have the confidence to make decisions.
2 comments
Comment by David posted on
Following on from John's comment, I have looked back at my pay slips from 2009 to date, and my take home pay (the money in my pocket) is down by 1.2% over the 6 year period. This will be common to many in the civil service.
Although I am proud to be a civil servant, and with the outputs of my work, I increasingly find difficult to be engaged or to engage others.
Despite the civil service core values; integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality, the feedback received by many civil servants regarding their 'value' is far from honest. I would advise graduates to think very carefully before pursuing a career in the modern civil service.
Comment by John posted on
I've just looked at my payslip for April and find that my hard work has earnt me a £10.00 a month pay cut this month.
I no longer feel "engaged" (to use the current buzzword), or proud to be a civil servant.