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 Unflappable:
Can you be the same person regardless of circumstance? I have seen several characters in my career who could be in just about any situation and keep their cool. All hell could be breaking loose and they’d never resort to emotion.
This is a quality that is rare. I’d like to say I possess it, but I only do to a degree. I was lucky to have several people reporting to me that had it and they were a great offset to me on the rare occasions when I’d get angry. I was grateful to have them around - you will be similarly appreciated if you can cultivate a “cool as a cucumber” stance in times of stress.
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Reputation
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| Go Vols!
Make a habit of doing volunteer work early in your professional life. You can easily find non-profit organizations that need volunteers, spanning a multitude of causes. Your time may be limited so even if its an hour a week, consider it as a development experience, i.e. to learn what is going on in the community around you.
Some have a spiritual driver behind such endeavors which can be an extra motivator. The longer you do these things, the higher the likelihood you will become known for them. Just be careful not to over-promote such activity so you won’t be seen as doing it for the wrong reasons.
Bonus Point!
AI can’t volunteer to help others. Its a human super-power.
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Results
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Timely Advice:
We hear that AI isn’t necessarily killing jobs, so far, as much as making us busier. How long has it been since you revisited Time Management as a discipline to master? I remember refreshing on the topic several times in my career, usually when I felt the most overwhelmed.
Book recommendation alert! The best book I have found on the topic is The 25th Hour by Declair, Dinh and Dumont. It’s one of the most marked up books I have, originally published in 2018. One quick example from the book is the Two Minute Rule: if something on your to do list can be done in two minutes or less, do it now, immediately. Like it? There are many more in the book that will help you get results daily.
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