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A GovLoop Guide
Conclusion: Some Tried & True Advice We hope you found this resource helpful. Regardless of where you are in your career journey, your work as public servants matters. That’s why GovLoop has a stake in your professional growth.
To close, here are 10 tips that Dave Uejio, Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, shared at the 2021 NextGen Training Summit. He said they were lessons that have traveled with him throughout his career since his first HR job in government. We hope they will help guide and refresh your calling in public service, too.
1. Be humble, hardworking and people-
centric in everything you do. If it’s true that public servants make a great impact, it’s
also important to approach the work with
humility and an eagerness to learn from the people you serve.
2. Ensure you know why you’re in public
service. If you know your “why,” others will notice it too.
3. Have a grateful attitude. It will help
“turbocharge” your work – and you’re likely to be better at your job day-to-day.
4. Good work will speak for itself. Your work builds your reputation, not the other way around.
5. Be kind and don’t take relationships for
granted. Who knows — your next coworker
or supervisor may be the person you ride the elevator with.
6. Listen. Hearing is one thing, but listening is what builds relationships for the long haul.
It’s key to gaining the respect of peers, even when they may not agree with you.
7. Respect and foster organizational tension.
A diverse organization naturally has tension – and a strong organization builds tension into its structure.
8. Build trust. Trust goes both ways – you need to be trusted, and you need to trust others.
9. Always continue learning about your
organization. “We don’t work in a vacuum,” Uejio said. Know the ways your work intersects with others.
10. Stay resilient amid transitions. “Millions of people depend on our work no matter who is in office. It’s our duty to center the public in what we do,” Uejio said.
