Stephen H. Baird

Lawyer specialising in technology, data, trade law, aviation & telecoms for SITA ( All opinions solely my own.

[Stephen H. Baird @stephenhbaird]

My @ACCDocket article - "Data Breach! A Playbook for The First 72 Hours” re key legal steps for the crucial time period immediately following detection of a data breach event. #databreach #datasecurity #gdpr #privacy #inhousecounsel #accdocket #accinhouse https://t.co/QqHd3yPXhW

[Stephen H. Baird @stephenhbaird]

@JillFilipovic Yes Chateau de Valfin could do this, 90 min from Geneva, 2 nights 30 ppl - local church is near the birthplace of Louis Vuitton

[Leopoldina 🇧🇷 @PunkyBolsonaro]

Professor corrigindo os alunos do lado de fora da piscina.

Até eu aprendi daqui 🫶🏼

[Melodies & Masterpieces @SVG__Collection]

Visualizing James Jamerson’s legendary bassline on “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” (credit to Vulfpeck)

[More Births @MoreBirths]

https://t.co/THdZeAk7EY

[Stephen H. Baird @stephenhbaird]

Epic history https://t.co/j7r7fzUHa0

[Maurizio @themgmtconsult]

Worked 2 decades in in consulting.

Made Partner in my 30s.
Led teams of 100+ people.
Run 9-figure client portfolios.
Lived and worked in 4 continents.

To grow fast, I had to learn practical ways to "narrate reality" to my leaders, without turning into the loudest guy in the office.

3 UNDER-DISCUSSED WAYS TO SELF-PROMOTE

1) Run "impact debriefs" after every meaningful piece of work, and make them impossible to ignore.

A lot of people finish a project… and move on.

They think "Well, my boss saw how hard I worked. They know."

No they don't.

After every major milestone (eg, a workshop, a turnaround, a nasty delivery save) write a one-page impact note and send it to the people who matter.

Frame it as a story of change: what was broken, what you changed, what business risk or cost you removed, what decision you unlocked, etc

Use numbers, but lead with stakes.

An exec doesn't care about "I consolidated 3 misaligned streams" but they get interested with "I prevented a $4M regulatory exposure by getting 4 execs to align on a single approach"...

The right people remember evidence.

⸻

2) Translate your work into executive language, even if nobody asked you to.

Early in your career you think work is about doing, but later you realize careers are built on how your work is interpreted.

Every month, force yourself to rewrite what you did in a language an exec would respect:

Risk reduced.
Revenue unlocked.
Delay avoided.
Optionality created.

Take the complex thing you did in the trenches and narrate it as cause-and-effect.

For example:

"I built a dashboard" is output.

"I gave the CFO a single source of financial truth and eliminated three weeks of reconciliation activities per quarter" is impact.

Then drip-feed that language in conversations, performance reviews, 1:1s, town halls.

You are simply making reality visible at the altitude where decisions are made.

IMPORTANT!!! If you do not narrate it, someone else will, and they will narrate themselves into your work.

⸻

3) Build a small internal audience and teach them what you are learning.

All right, this is the highest-leverage move.

Once a quarter, run a short learning session inside your team or practice: teach a principle that emerged from your work.

Explain the context and trade-offs, give details, so that people start seeing you not as a deliverable machine but as a person who creates understanding.

Understanding is political capital.

Executives hear about people who create understanding.

Careers move around those people.

⸻

Let me be even more explicit: doing important work in silence is romantic, but in reality, silence gets mistaken for irrelevance.

Be an high achiever, but don't be a QUIET high achiever.

Narrate what is true: do it with restraint, precision, and respect for the craft.

I wrote a chapter in "Beyond Slides" with more suggestions on how to "self-promote without looking like an asshole", so have a read at the below extract!

All the best!!

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

The big education crisis caused by AI is not going to be in schools (there was cheating before AI & we can figure out AI uses that boost learning), but after graduation.

White collar work is secretly based on an apprenticeship system that will break

From my book Co-Intelligence

[Keep Rock Alive 🤘 @_KeepRockAlive_]

Happy Monday Rockers

[The Figen @TheFigen_]

He is excellent teacher! 👏😂

[Business Insider @BusinessInsider]

This is how to successfully ask for a raise

[John Safran @JohnSafran]

The golem is a mystical mud creature that protects the Jewish community from attacks. No one's built one for 600 years... until now!

[🥀_ Imposter_🥀 @Imposter_Edits]

There was a baby chimp born at The Sedgwick County Zoo, the baby had to be put on oxygen for a few days. This is a clip of it being reintroduced to its mother for the first time.

[Xavi Ruiz @xruiztru]

This is a superb visualization of European history (1500-2022).
https://t.co/e87t1bKxYC

[Paul O’Kane @pmokane]

Gerry Anderson’s son David was in touch with me after I inadvertently made Gerry go viral. He & the family loved reading all the messages & seeing Gerry reach a whole new audience. They are creating a website to host his work. https://t.co/RuAEoxwhJP #GerryAnderson

[Jay @AlaskanSnowball]

@margo_ross48 @RevRichardColes These may not be in the right order but I got them all.

[Stephen H. Baird @stephenhbaird]

@GilesMilton1 I loved this book and have read most of your others, and look forward to reading your latest! Thank you !!

[Giles Milton @GilesMilton1]

Researching and writing Nathaniel’s Nutmeg seems to belong to another era.
But I have the fondest memories of the many hours spent in the old East India library - and, of course, a trip to the remote and forgotten Run Island.
#HistoryWritersDay