Career story: director of cabinet affairs

What does a day in your shoes feel like? And what are the key skills that can make or break a career in your field?

We’ve asked a diverse group of Apolitical members to share their career story with us and the tips they have for junior public servants. In this article, an anonymous civil servant explains why it’s important to learn as much as you can about the public service in your country for their role as the director of cabinet affairs.

What is your current role and how do you spend your time on a standard day?

Director of Cabinet Affairs

1. Working with Ministries, Departments and Agencies to develop and/or review policies, strategies, project documents, Agreements and other proposals they want to bring to Cabinet for approval.

2. Meetings with the Advisors in the Office of the President to get their opinions on critical proposals from line Ministries; as a Civil Servant I try to limit my opinion and briefings on issues and proposals for Cabinet to the socio-economic, legal and financial implications, so I rely on the Advisors appointed by the President to focus on political implications of these proposals.

3. Meetings with my direct boss, the Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Civil Service on emerging issues in the Civil and public service; for instance, today I had several meetings with my boss and various other senior stakeholders on the draft Public Service policy.

4. Addressing issues/ complaints from Ministers e.g conditions of service, inefficient staff, poor internet connectivity in their offices (we have been holding virtual Cabinet meetings since the onset of the C-19 pandemic in 2020, so this is a big problem!). Approximately 20 per cent of my work is finding solutions to various problems affecting Ministers or identifying the people who have the solutions.

What did you do before taking up this role?

I was a Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist with a public sector institution tasked with reforming the public sector (contract officer outside of the Civil Service); Local consultant with ASI on a DfID project being implemented in Sierra Leone to reform the Cabinet decision-making systems.

In your opinion, what are the most important skills someone needs to excel in your field?

Technical knowledge of public policy development and implementation; change management; organisational development; excellent oral and written communications; organizational skills - ability to build sincerity and trust, ability to communicate and empathize; multi-tasking - juggling various assignments and supervising several others at the same time, time management and planning.

What is your favourite part of your job?

Seeing a proposal my team put a lot of work on getting approval in Cabinet; I view every rejection by Cabinet as a failure on my part to effectively support a Minister in developing a viable solution/answer to an issue.

What advice would you give to new public servants who are interested in a career in your field?

Learn as much as you can about the public service in your country - how it's structured, the players, and the complexities of the issues affecting it (the challenges are almost always very complex and therefore most solutions proffered by Ministers do not address the underlying factors and it will be your job to tease these out and ways to address them).

Read, read, read - books, articles, academic papers, etc on public policy, global politics, to understand what works in other places around the globe and why.

Be committed to your goals for improving the public service - be prepared to give 200 per cent - I am on call 24 hours a day (via phone/email ) so it's very demanding.

Be far removed from all political activity - as Civil Servants, we aim to build efficient and lasting institutions that serve the people, and we should not engage in political activities; specifically, for my role supporting Cabinet Ministers over the course of different political administrations, this apolitical stance is the bedrock of my professionalism and objectivity.

Supporting Ministers/Politicians requires a lot of trust, and your reputation as an objective committed professional is the most important factor in gaining their respect and getting them to listen to your advice.

Want to share your own career story with the Apolitical community? Use this form to let us know about your job.

(Image Credit: Unsplash)