Concern vs control: a public servant’s guide to impact

Public servants operate in a complex working environment, navigating 40 distinct factors while striving to create public value through their policy practices. This paper applies Covey’s Circles of Concern framework, a longstanding and widely regarded management approach, to explain how public servants can better control these influences upon their policy practice. In doing so it provides a guide for how public servant can enhance their ability to drive desirable public outcomes. Building on Covey’s argument that focussing on what you can control will lead to greater impact, the article argues public servants will enhance their capability to deliver public objectives if they first master the factors within their reach. This mastery will enable them to influence the expression of those factors as opportunities rather than barriers to public value creation. The paper finds individuals who recognize the constellation of factors and actively work on those within their control, will likely be more effective public servants and policy entrepreneurs.