by Duane K. Andrews on Substack
Weekly strategies, frameworks, and truth-to-power insights for ENRICH professionals navigating workplaces that were not designed for them. The career manual nobody gave you, delivered to your inbox.
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Each edition delivers practical frameworks you can apply the same week you read them. No fluff. No motivational platitudes. Strategy.
Deep dives into each of the 17 Keys for Leading Up. The strategies from the books, expanded with new examples and real-world application.
Real situations ENRICH professionals face: microaggressions in meetings, being passed over, navigating "culture fit" conversations, lateral aggression from peers.
Specific strategies for the most important work relationship you have. How to read your boss, build rapport, and position yourself strategically.
Sometimes leaving IS the strategy. Knowing when to stay, when to go, and how to protect yourself throughout the decision.
Healthcare, finance, tech, academia, government, nonprofit. Workplace dynamics differ by sector. The advice should too.
The research behind the practice. Featuring scholars with lived experience: Claude Steele, Kimberle Crenshaw, Derald Wing Sue, and more.
You have ever had to translate yourself to be heard at work.
You have had to shrink yourself to be safe in a professional setting.
You have had to overperform just to belong in rooms where others were welcomed automatically.
You have been told you are "not a culture fit" and knew exactly what that meant.
You have watched less qualified colleagues advance while you waited for your turn.
You want strategy, not sympathy. You want a plan, not a pep talk.
ENRICH is the lens through which The Outsider's Toolkit examines workplace dynamics. It stands for the six dimensions of identity that shape how professionals experience work, and how work experiences them.
If any dimension of your ENRICH identity has shaped how you are perceived, evaluated, or treated at work, you are an ENRICH Outsider. And this newsletter was written for you.
A sampling of topics from The Outsider's Toolkit. Each one addresses a real challenge ENRICH professionals face.
Why the written job requirements and the actual advancement criteria are often two different things.
Distinguishing between a difficult boss and a biased one. And what to do about each.
When the threat is not above you, it is beside you. Navigating colleagues who undermine.
How subjective evaluation systems disproportionately affect ENRICH Outsiders, and how to protect yourself.
Microaggressions disguised as compliments. How to respond without derailing your career.
When leaving is the power move. How to exit on your terms with your reputation intact.
Key #17: Establishing Relational Chemistry. The most important key in the entire framework.
Reframing adaptation as a sophisticated leadership competency, not a compromise of identity.
Starting a new role when you know the environment was not built for someone like you.
Leadership books were not written for you. Management advice assumes a playing field you have never stood on. The Outsider's Toolkit fills that gap. Every week. For free.
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