This document summarizes and promotes the book "10 Essential Skills for Public Servants" by Shahid Hussain Raja. The book is intended to help civil servants improve their skills based on the author's 35 years of experience. It identifies 10 essential skills like leadership, ethics, and emotional intelligence. Each skill is explained in detail along with its importance and how to apply it. The book is aimed at civil servants but would also benefit those in other management roles or interested in self-improvement. It is available as an e-book on Amazon and the author can provide the PDF version for a small fee.

1. Author: Shahid Hussain Raja

2.  Introduction
 About the author
 Need for writing the book
 For whom it is meant
 Chapter wise contents of the book
 How to purchase it

3.  This is a promotional presentation about the book
“10 Essential Skills for Public Servants: A Handbook”
written by a retired senior civil servant
 It explains the contents of the book- the ten skills the
author thinks are essential for any public servant to
improve his/her efficiency and effectiveness.
 Author has explained these skills, their importance and
how these can be applied while performing official duties.

4.  Retired in 2012 as Federal Secretary, Govt. of Pakistan, held
various senior positions during 35 year’s service
 M.A.(Economics), M.A.(Political Science), M.Sc.(Defence and
Strategic Studies)
 Post Graduate Diploma holder (Development Studies- University
of Cambridge)
 Executive Development Program at the JF Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University, USA.
 Author of 8 books on various public policy issues

5.  During my appointment as Chief Instructor of the Pakistan
Administrative Staff College, Lahore (Pakistan) I trained nearly 200
senior officers in the art and science of statecraft
 I realised the need for writing a short handbook which could
become a reference book for their further learning.
 Out of more than 30 skills considered necessary for a senior
officer, I chose 10 as essential.
 This book enumerates those 10 essential skills, explains their
importance and presents a comprehensive plan of action for
applying each skill in different contexts

6.  Written primarily for civil servants - senior or junior
 Extremely helpful for anyone in any management position
 Public, private, corporate, NGO, SME or large organisation
 Also for students of public or business administration
 Even for any general reader keen on self improvement

7.  Gives a comprehensive background of the current working
environment for civil servants
 Identifies the 6 drivers of this change and the six challenges
these changing environment pose for a modern civil servant
 Advises the civil servants on how to respond to these
challenges with the ten skills- which form the subject matter
of the book

8.  I debunk the age-old myth created by Peter Drucker of the
separation of leadership from management
 After rejecting it by giving very cogent reasons, I advise civil
servants to be leaders wherever they are working
 I share ten tips to the civil servants how to play a leadership
role in any appointment during their career.

9.  Makes a clear distinction between personal morality and
organisational ethics
 Morality is an officer’s personal moral values; ethics are
organisational norms and codes of behaviour that are expected
 In case of conflict between the two, I advise civil servants should
follow the organisational ethics, not personal morality
 I list the ten important points a civil servant should keep in mind to
become an officer that is ethical

10.  As important as general intelligence, I consider it an essential
skill for better service delivery as well as self-actualization.
 Use these emotions as a productive force instead of a
destructive one
 I give a detailed plan for a civil servant how to not only handle
their own emotions but also those of their subordinates

11.  Cautions the civil servants for timely recognition of a change,
its likely impact and taking effective measures in time
 Explains 7 sources of change which could affect the working
environment, morale and performance of a civil servant
 Presents an eight point plan to systematically manage any
change and use it for productive purposes

12.  Makes strong case for the public servants to be not only tech
savvy but also use IT to improve the quality of life of people
 Exhorts them for expeditious digitisation of public services for
providing information online and redressing their grievances
 Identifies four key areas to focus, four issues to tackle and
suggests a four-point strategy for digital transformation.

13.  Abridged version of my book on the same topic, explaining
how public policies are made and the role of public servants
 Lists a comprehensive criteria to judge the efficacy and
effectiveness of any public policy.
 I also highlight the weaknesses of the public policies made in
developing countries by taking Pakistan as a case study

14.  Maintaining inter-personal relations/communications as
important skills, I guide civil servants on how to master them
 Explains the 12 rules of negotiations, 8 principles of conducting
meeting and Rule of Six for making PowerPoint Presentations..
 Guides them how to ask good questions during meetings, their
format and gives 10 tips for formulating the questions

15.  Writing/analysing reports, preparing summaries/ papers and
writing notes is a daily job of a civil servant.
 These reports/notes must be concise, factually correct,
written logically with cogent reasons given for proposed plan
 Lists five Ps of writing a note on a file and comprehensive
guidelines to write a report/analyse one prepared by others

16.  Points our how to manage the human, financial and material
resources and also gives detailed guidelines in this respect
 Discusses budget making, human resource management and
explains 8 Cs framework for effective Delegation of Authority
 Explains in easy language the three financial statements - the
balance sheet, cash-flow and profit/loss statements

17.  Explains the need and importance of learning logical analysis,
strategic planning and pragmatic decision making
 Points out the logical mistakes bureaucrats make and takes
great pains to explain how to avoid these cognitive biases.
 Also points out the components of strategic planning and how
to carry out in any organisational context
 Lastly, explains step by step how to make pragmatic, as
opposed to ideological, decisions

18.  Nearly 1400 years ago Hazrat Ali, 4th Caliph of Islam wrote a
letter to one of his governors for his guidance on statecraft.
 It is considered as masterpiece document outlining the duties
of public servants during peace and war
 Author has extracted 20 principles from this letter which are
still as applicable as they were hundreds of years ago

19.  "In international relations, there are no permanent friends, nor
permanent enemies, only permanent national interests”
 Everyone has a vague idea of national interest but very few
will come up with a satisfactory explanation.
 Explains the national interest, its four components as well as
the four objectives to be achieved under each component.

20.  It is available as an EBook on all Kindle devices for US $ 5.99 by clicking the
following URL at Amazon
 https://www.amazon.com/Shahid-Hussain-Raja/e/B015EO67EY
 If you do not have a kindle device, you can download the Kindle app to your
computer or the mobile phone and then download it
 If you are Kindle prime reader, then of course you can download it free of charge as
per your entitlement.
 If Kindle is not downloadable in your country, then kindly email me and in return for
remitting US$ 2 (or its equivalent) in my paypal account, I will send you its PDF copy
 Ny Email Id is shahidraja@hotmail.com