A new free tool gives professionals five concrete scores across the career factors that decide who gets promoted and who gets cut.
St. Louis, Missouri - September 23, 2026 - Steve Degnan - Pragmatic Leadership Keynotes & Advisory today launched the Promotable and Fireproof Self Assessment, a free diagnostic tool that scores professionals across four critical career dimensions: Relationships, Reputation, Results, and AI Habits. Available now at stevedegnan.com, the assessment delivers an overall score out of 132 and four individual scores, giving users a specific, ranked picture of where they stand and where to focus next.
Key Facts
• Launch date: September 23, 2026 • Tool name: The Promotable and Fireproof Self Assessment, available free at stevedegnan.com • Overall score: Out of 132 points across all four dimensions combined • Four scored dimensions: Relationships (out of 44), Reputation (out of 44), Results (out of 44), and an AI Assessment measuring how effectively the user applies AI in daily professional practice • Context: According to Gallup's 2024 State of the Global Workplace report, only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged at work, meaning the overwhelming majority of professionals are invisible to the leaders deciding who moves up and who moves out • The assessment is the foundation for Steve Degnan's forthcoming book on becoming Promotable and Fireproof
What the Assessment Measures and Why It Matters Now
Most professionals have a general sense that career success depends on more than doing good work. They're right, but "more than good work" isn't a plan. The Promotable and Fireproof Self Assessment turns a vague hunch into five concrete numbers.
The scoring is built around the four factors that, across three decades of C-suite observation, consistently separate the people who advance from the people who stall. Relationships captures how you build trust, communicate, and collaborate, scored out of 44. Reputation covers the credibility and track record others actually associate with your name, also scored out of 44. Results measures the outcomes and impact you consistently deliver, again out of 44. The AI Assessment scores how effectively you're applying AI tools in your day-to-day professional work, recognizing that this has become a visible differentiator in promotion decisions faster than most organizations have officially acknowledged it.
When Gallup reports that more than half of workers globally are disengaged or actively disengaged, the math on standing out shifts dramatically. The competition for advancement isn't as fierce as it looks on paper. But it does require knowing specifically what's missing, not just working harder at everything. That's what the five scores provide.
The assessment doesn't produce a motivational paragraph or a generic personality label. It produces a ranked set of scores that point directly to the area with the biggest gap. If your Relationships score is 38 out of 44 and your Reputation score is 21, you know where to put your energy. Silence on that question, meaning no real feedback from the organization and no honest self-measurement, reads as a fine answer right up until it isn't.
What Comes Next
The Promotable and Fireproof Self Assessment is the diagnostic companion to Steve Degnan's forthcoming book, which builds the practical framework for improving each dimension. For organizations, the assessment also signals the direction of Degnan's advisory and keynote work: specific, scored, actionable frameworks for developing people who are both promotable and resilient enough to stay indispensable when conditions change. Vague culture initiatives don't survive a hard quarter. Professionals with strong scores across all four dimensions do. The assessment is available now at stevedegnan.com.
About Steve Degnan - Pragmatic Leadership Keynotes & Advisory
Steve Degnan is an executive keynote speaker and organizational advisor based in St. Louis, Missouri, with 32 years of experience including 20 years as Chief Human Resources Officer at a $13 billion food and pet food company. He works with mid to large-sized organizations to build promotable, resilient teams and cultures that perform under pressure, not just on the good days. A U.S. Army veteran, Degnan brings the same candor to the boardroom that he developed in uniform: straight answers, no theater, and frameworks that actually get used.