To say Pamela Hackett knows of what she speaks would be a massive understatement. After all, she is the CEO of the premier management firm Proudfoot, and recently was the recipient of the Global CEO Award from the 2019 CEO Today Management Consulting Awards. But on a human level, part of the feeling you’re in good hands reading Hackett’s new book is her writing style. It’s relaxed, a bit humorous, and lacks any sort of pretension, high-handedness, or otherwise indicative red flags that sadly populate the majority of the ‘business advice’ sub-category of the nonfiction and leadership literary genres.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: https://pamelahackett.com/
Hackett speaks about things in candid, sometimes evocative language – terms like ‘War on Talent’ particularly sticking out in the text. There’s a feeling she’s trying to find the balance between communicating clearly her hard-earned, veteran wisdom and knowledge about the fields she oversees with the more humanistic, even somewhat altruistic feelings she has about how to acutely approach leadership roles within said fields. For Hackett, communication proves to be one of the most vital keys. Communication, she essentially states, makes or breaks an organization’s short-term and long-term victories in competition. Rather than following the traditionalist model of hierarchy and exclusionary echelons, Hackett is one of a number of prominent voices advocating for a more progressive, fair-minded, and holistic kind of model for the post-Covid workplace.
ABOUT PROUDFOOT: https://proudfoot.com/
This ideology essentially entails that a corporation or otherwise general business endeavor requires a collective unity on a visceral and intellectual level. There essentially has to be camaraderie to an appropriate extent, Hackett writes, a feeling that each and every person on the playing field has an emotional investment and understanding in helping promote the company to reach its desired outcome. “We are at a time where leaders at every level, the people who manage the business day to day, stand to have the greatest impact on their business survival and growth, by how they themselves show up and engage – how they build a better business for people. A new people reality,” Hackett writes. She later elaborates, “Humanize. Optimize. Digitize. Engagement is the core of all improvement…The need to engage your people and teams has never been more crucial. The upside is limitless.”
It’s these kind of sentiments, articulated so beautifully by someone in Hackett’s position and with her distinct brand of power, that can’t help but make you feel uplifted by the possibilities. More and more people in varying positions of said power are starting to rethink traditionalist views and methodologies concerning elements christened ‘the fast pace of the rat race’, ‘ways of the corporate jungle’, and ‘if it bleeds, it leads’. The ruthlessness many once railed against as at best out of touch, and at worst distinctly amoral, has been dissected internally by those in positions to continue implementing it. It’s a change arguably long overdue, but these days especially necessary.
PURCHASE LINK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1119773466/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_3JCAZVN1WMS8YYQSBPFD
People like Hackett deserve a lot of credit for not only leading the charge, but helping put words and a personalized face to it in a way the widest possible audience can understand.
Garth Thomas