There’s a sentence I hear often in career change conversations with public sector leaders.
It usually comes a little hesitantly. Sometimes with a small, self-deprecating laugh.
“I’m just… not very good at selling myself.”
And when I hear it, I always want to pause on it. Because I think it contains something worth unpacking.
Not because it’s wrong, exactly. But because I’m not sure it’s telling the whole truth.
Today, I want to look at what’s really going on when that thought shows up. And offer you a different way to think about it.
One that might feel a little more like you.
The Idea of ‘Selling Yourself’ Makes Public Sector Leaders Feel Icky
Let’s start with what that sentence is NOT saying. It’s not saying: “I struggle to communicate.” Because you don’t. You’ve spent years doing some of the most demanding communication work there is:
Making the case for a programme that needs funding. Navigating a stakeholder who doesn’t want to hear your message. Building trust across organisations, sectors, sometimes languages and cultures. So the issue isn’t ability.
What I think that sentence is actually saying is something more like: “Putting myself forward doesn’t feel like me.“
And that makes complete sense. Because for many public sector leaders, it genuinely isn’t how you were shaped.
The culture of public service is one of putting others first. The public good before personal gain. The programme before the person running it. The work before the recognition. That’s not a flaw. It’s often what drew you here in the first place.
But it DOES create an interesting bind.
You become genuinely skilled at advocating for things you believe in – and uncomfortable advocating for yourself. As if the same values that make you good at your work are the ones that make this particular thing feel… off.
Here’s what I’d like you to consider for a moment.
The people who could connect you to what’s next – that maybe be a former colleague who moved into the private sector, or a contact in an NGO, or someone building a consultancy – they don’t know what you’re thinking about or the kind of contribution you want to make next.
And so they can’t help you. Not because they don’t want to. But because they simply don’t know.
I’ve worked with leaders who have shaped significant policy, managed complex programmes, built coalitions across governments and communities. And they’ve talked themselves into believing that their experience only counts inside their current organisation. Or inside the public sector full stop.
That their skills won’t translate into another sector. That a business wouldn’t understand what they’ve done. That an NGO would want someone with a different background. And almost none of that turns out to be the case.
What tends to be true is the opposite. The ability to navigate complexity, to hold multiple stakeholders in mind at once, to keep sight of long-term outcomes under short-term pressure – these are not common.
Your ability to not only think about the outcome, but also how you get there and how you bring people along, these are genuinely sought after across sectors.
So what do you do with this now?
This Will Be a Relief For Public Sector Leaders
I think the starting point is letting go of the word “selling”. Because it’s part of what’s making this harder than it needs to be.
When you sell something, you’re trying to persuade someone to want what you have. There’s a transaction.
That’s not what’s being asked of you here. What’s actually being asked is something much closer to what you already do well:
Helping people understand how you can contribute.
Think about what that looks like in practice.
It might be:
- telling a former colleague what kind of problems interest you, and what you’d love to work on next, or
- being honest about the fact that you’re at a crossroads, or
- saying to someone whose work you admire: “Hey, I’d love to understand more about how you ended up where you are.”
None of that is selling. It’s just clarity.
Clarity that allows the people around you to connect you with something: a conversation, an introduction, an opportunity, that might genuinely change the direction of your career.
Before I leave you with something practical, I want to name one thing I hear underneath this conversation quite often.
The worry that word might get out. That being seen to be exploring options could be misread as disloyalty, or dissatisfaction, or a lack of commitment to your current role.
I understand that concern, particularly in environments where people know each other well and news travels.
But in my experience, the leaders who approach this thoughtfully, who have a quiet, trusted conversations someone outside their immediate circle, rarely regret it.
What they find, more often than not, is that people respond with genuine interest and warmth. That those conversations open up possibilities they hadn’t considered. That the world of work outside their current context is more curious about them than they expected.
The risk of staying silent tends to be higher than the risk of opening up carefully.
So here’s where I’d like you to start: Think of one person.
Someone who already knows your work, who thinks well of you. Maybe a former manager or a peer who moved into a different sector. Someone who has, at some point, said “let me know if I can ever help” – and meant it.
And ask yourself: What would I want them to understand about where I’m heading?
You don’t need to be louder, or more polished, or more comfortable with self-promotion. You just need to be a little more open with the people who are already well-placed to help.
Until next time: make space, rediscover you, and then take action.