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The Promotable and Fireproof Newsletter
Your source for quick, actionable advice on maximizing your potential in the age of fast change, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and uncertainty.
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Promotable and Fireproof
Steve Degnan here, Advisor Board Member and former Chief Human Resources (HR) Officer.
Relationships, Reputation and Results
are the main ingredients to career success,
and what I see as the driving forces in becoming
Promotable and Fireproof.
Together let's dig in to some quick take advice to make this real.
I’m glad you’re here. Let’s go!
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Relationships |
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Demonstrate Tenacity and Fearlessness:
Really? In relationships? Yes. These are two of the best ways to be a great team mate. You will find that you will always be part of some sort of team in your career, at all levels of any kind of organization. The way to create incredible bonds is to show your team mates that you can work, can stay with a problem and can grind when needed. That’s tenacity.
Fearlessness, or courage, will gain you admirers, especially if you demonstrate it while defending a team mate who has failed to deliver, has simply made a mistake, or just needs help. Standing up for someone being unfairly maligned or ridiculed when a majority of those around you are doing it takes guts. When you do that, the loyalty you get back will last a lifetime.
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Reputation |
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We talked about how you dress in newsletter #2. Just as important? How you talk:
Good grammar is a habit and when you do not use it in a business setting, it sticks out. Double negatives, misused words and too much slang can have people thinking you are a dummy, even if you are not. Context is everything. Sitting at a bar after work with colleagues is the time to use slang and swear words if you must, but usually it’s not a good idea to do so at work or on zoom.
It takes decades of experience to know when it might be ok to drop in a slightly off color joke in public, but even then, there is risk. So while you are building your career and finding your path, be careful. And if you don’t know if you are speaking or writing with the best version of the language, use AI tools to help you sort that out.
Bonus Point!
Ask your favorite AI tool how to improve your vocabulary and over all grammar if you have any doubts that you are not at your best.
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Results |
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Find the Breakthrough:
I have been blessed to lead incredible people in my career who led finding breakthroughs in recruiting through early use of social media, forecasting talent needs via new software and many other HR related innovations. They were all very smart, but not uniquely so. What they had was curiosity and that tenacity is extremely valuable in team mates.
As you develop expertise, aspire to be the one that can deliver timely break throughs in technology or insights to your work team. We still have an advantage in ingenuity over AI as humans. Use that advantage.
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