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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.
Read time: 3 min.
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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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Be Human:
Book Reco: Bob Chapman passed recently; former Chairman and CEO of Barry-Wehmiller Corp, a multi-billion dollar packaging automation company, Bob wrote the book Everybody Matters (co-author Raj Sisoda), often quoted by Simon Sinek among others.
Bob’s principles are what he calls “Truly Human Leadership” and you’ll find yourself nodding in easy agreement if you read it, but will reflect that implementing its principles will take some hard work. Bob coined the phrase “span of care” to replace “span of control” and that may summarize the book’s content as well as any phrase in it. Godspeed, Bob. Your writing deserves many readings and will help everyone have a better career.
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Reputation |
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| Another Book!
“Did he send you one of his stupid books?” Said one of my early bosses about another boss, who had indeed sent me a book after I achieved a milestone promotion. In hindsight, the book wasn’t great - one of those trendy ones that comes out, makes a splash and disappears. But I liked the gesture. The VP that sent it won my attention and respect for a time.
This kind of gesture, if done thoughtfully, will win you respect as a thoughtful leader who influences outside of their own area.
Bonus Point!
Don’t use AI for this one; have your own book selection - and that takes work.
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Results |
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There's always tomorrow . . . maybe not!
“Tomorrow Never Comes” was a saying my dad threw out occasionally, prompted by an individual saying “I’ll do it tomorrow” in reference to any kind of undesirable task being procrastinated. He shared that his own father passed it down to him.
We can evade having this said to us by doing what industrial engineers call the "non-value added but necessary” work as early in the day as possible while we still have energy and focus. For me that was emails that had to be answered and sometimes business writing that had to be done.
Make a habit of doing the least enjoyable parts of your job early and at the same time everyday. Git ‘er done!
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Your Quick Take Clip
Be effective. Be human. Be the one to get it done! AI can be a great tool for efficiency but to be effective and make the positive impact on an organization’s results we need to rely on our own human abilities - be that leadership, kind gestures, or the willingness to get things done!
Efficient or Effective? Don’t be fooled.
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#That'sWhatSteveSaid
“Every leader needs to insist on linear thinking where it is needed - like in core math and engineering problems - but challenge their teams to rise above it in strategy development. This distinction is critical. While operational tasks often benefit from structural processes, strategic decision-making increasingly requires adaptability and context.”
- Steve’s take on balancing structure and strategic flexibility.
Read more here!
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Until Next Week!
Steve |
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