Do you ever think about the impact of your public sector communications through the eyes of the public?

This week I got an email out of the blue from LIFT (Leading Ireland's Future Together).

LIFT Ireland is a social enterprise initiative aimed at increasing the level of positive leadership in Ireland. Leadership is not limited to a select few and everyone can be a leader in their own way. At LIFT Ireland, we want to help build a nation of positive leaders. We believe that the more people ‘living LIFT’, the better the future we create for our country.

The email informed me that I was nominated for an Innovation award by an anonymous member of the public. As you can appreciate it took me completely by surprise. But what surprised me more was the fact that a member of the public saw the value of better public sector communications.

Here's how the story goes.

Nomination for a LIFT Award in the Innovation category 

This is what your nominator had to say about you: 

"Joanne is a person I admire greatly for her insight and follow through in all she does. She took a sector that was on paper about serving the public but in reality the public had no real ability to inform the sector of their needs. Joanne is very diligent in all she does and has managed to maintain a humility about her in how she interacts with people. Joanne manages to encapsulate all of her training and skills to bring them along into the arena of engaging with the public in a meaningful way through social media. Joanne, despite her struggles in her early life has demonstrated a huge ability to innovate when needed and we are better off and more informed now because of how she engaged with the public sector. I feel I know more about the public sector than ever before and I see Joanne's hand in the communication from the public sector. We are (as a general public) more informed because of the training the public sector take with Joanne. The sector seems more approachable to me and I have more confidence in them now that I know someone like Joanne who has real sincerity and integrity is involved in some way."

Judging Process

The judges are reviewing all applications over the next few weeks and the shortlist will be announced in the first week of January 2023. The awards ceremony will be in person next year and the date will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

LIFT asks me to "Please don’t be shy, tell the world about your nomination. You are helping to lead Ireland to a better future and that’s certainly worth celebrating!"

So a big thank you to my nominator and to LIFT for the recognition. Wishing all finalists the very best!

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