Following your passion: from public sector leader to professional organiser

From public sector leadership to professional organiser. That sounds crazy. It sounds like starting again and building completely new skills.

Well, it is a bit crazy, but its not as much of a change in skills as I thought. In my first few months in business, its been clear to me that many of the skills I developed as a policy leader are essential to my new role as a professional organiser too. For example:

🕊 Leading: I still need a clear strategy and a plan to get there; I need to assess options and decide what course to take.

🕊 Analysis: a lot of policy analysis is about bringing order to disordered ideas and presenting complex information and choices in a coherent way. Home organisation is a physical version of this - determining the goal (less clutter, less stress, downsizing, moving house, better functioning space) and the options for getting there (where to start and how to do it), and finding solutions to potential problems.

🕊 Coaching: listening is key. As a leader, my style is shaped by my introverted nature, with the superpower of really listening, understanding and caring. This is 100% essential in the world of home organising too.

🕊 Creativity: this is where I thought the greatest difference between policy leadership and organising would be. Creating beautiful physical spaces at work used to be confined to my office desk, and there's only so much you can do with a black stapler and post-it notes. But I also love a well presented document - impact, clarity, what you need where you can access it, with the most important things highlighted. And this is what home organising is all about too.

🕊 Drawing on evidence: researching the data and available literature is key. So, here's a little reward if you've read this far. An A3 (a public service staple) on the impacts of clutter. Enjoy :-)