The Keys to Effective Self-Promotion

“Self-promotion is a leadership and political skill that is critical to master in order to navigate the realities of the workplace and position you for success.”

~Bonnie Marcus

Most people are reluctant to promote themselves and their work. Are you one of them? You might update your boss about a few noteworthy accomplishments, but usually you stay humble and keep your nose pressed to the grindstone. Heaven forbid anyone accuse you of bragging!

“My work speaks for itself,” you think to yourself. “I don’t need to grandstand to get noticed and get ahead.”

Right?

Wrong!

Having coached hundreds of clients, I’ve learned that the employees who advance the furthest and fastest aren’t necessarily the most talented or deserving. One quality they almost always share is the ability to effectively communicate their impact and value to others in their organizations.

They’re able to promote themselves without annoying their superiors or alienating their colleagues.

Shameless Self-Promotion. How do they do it?

 Effective self-promoters have a different mindset than the rest of us. They realize there is nothing shameful or improper about seeking credit and recognition for their accomplishments.

They don’t assume they’ll naturally get noticed and rewarded. Instead, they proactively seek out and take advantage of opportunities to communicate the value they provide to their team and organization.

Do you consider yourself a hard-working employee? Do you possess the right talent, skills, and know-how for the job? If you answered yes to these questions and are still left wondering why you haven’t been presented with the best opportunities at work, well, there’s one critical element you’re missing: self-promotion.

How to Promote Your Achievements (Without Bragging)

 “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.”
~ Muhammad Ali

 You’d love to have your work speak for itself. After all, it’s good work. But merit is determined by people— by human judgement. That’s a blend of information, viewpoint, and emotional filters. In order for the person who determines merit to appreciate your work, several things have to happen:

• They have to know about the work.
• They have to know that YOU did the work.
• They have to understand the time, effort, intelligence, and skills it took to accomplish the job.
• They need to see how it benefits the company.

They can’t get all this by osmosis. Someone needs to at least get them the CliffsNotes of your involvement in the job. You can do that in several ways:

1 – Discuss the accomplishment and the specific steps you took to achieve it.

Promote the steps taken and your role in achieving the objective. Facts and figures take the focus away from personalities.

The next time you solve a nettlesome problem or fulfill your objectives, capitalize on opportunities to share your triumphs with those who are capable of influencing your career. It might be a brief “heads-up” email to your boss or a casual conversation in the elevator with your department head. And remember, sharing your accomplishments with them provides them with vital information they need to know.

2 – Focus on the benefits to your group, department, or company.

Take a big-picture approach, focusing on how the achievement benefits the company. This avoids making the impression that you’re more concerned about promoting yourself than the success of your organization. Sum up what the project did for the company, citing measurable outcomes. This not only feels less awkward but highlights your commitment to the organization’s success. And your boss (or senior leaders) will love seeing concrete metrics that clarify the project’s impact and importance!

3 – Recognize the contributions of others on your team.

When you promote others, you often promote yourself as well—and vice versa. When you lead your team to success, speak about what “we” accomplished rather than centering yourself. Share the limelight with your colleagues instead of keeping it all to yourself. Your boss and team will know you showed exceptional leadership, and they’ll see you as a great morale-builder when you share the success. Name names whenever possible: “We couldn’t have done it without Shari Montoya.” “Jim Reynolds, in Accounting, helped us on the budget issues.”

4 – Thank others for their encouragement and support.

When telling your boss, and your boss’s boss, what you’ve accomplished, consider framing the news in the form of a “thank you.” This can feel less like tooting your own horn and more like giving credit where it’s due—and thus, less awkward. For example, say, “Thanks for the encouragement to pursue project X. I’m thrilled about the results.” You’ll be strengthening these relationships by making others feel connected to your success.

5 – Expand Upon Compliments

When someone gives you a compliment, view it as an invitation to say more about the work they’re praising. This will feel less awkward if you share a piece of quantifiable data to sum up what your accomplishment did for the company. Rather than sharing a subjective opinion (e.g., “I’m brilliant”), you’re sharing something objective. And by focusing on results and outcomes, you’re giving them information that can help guide decision-making.

6 – Enlist your support network

Ask an advocate or mentor in your organization to publicly or privately pass on recognition of your accomplishments to organizational leaders. Request that a coworker write a letter of recommendation about your efforts on the task.

By taking some or all of these steps, you can ensure that your achievements never fly under the radar again! Now let’s segue into a closely related topic: How to adopt everyday habits that will boost your visibility on a daily basis.

Everyday Habits for Successful Self-Marketing

Again, it’s not the most competent people who get promoted; it’s the most visible. Your company deserves to have competent and visible people get promoted—YOU, after you master self-promotion strategies like those I’m about to share.

In today’s fast-paced and cutthroat work environment, the best opportunities don’t go to the most diligent and hard-working employees; they go to those who do a really good job of marketing themselves. If you understand this, you’ll realize why at certain times in your career you may have felt that someone less talented with inferior performance got promoted instead of you. Yes, you need to have the proper technical skills and qualifications for the job, but those who have a knack for successfully marketing themselves and building their own reputations will most likely race ahead of those who shy away from self-promotion.

Think of yourself as a brand, seeking to promote your “brand attributes.” For example, let’s say you want a reputation for “being a problem-solver who gets results.”  You can keep that quality in mind as you do all of the following:

• Speaking up in meetings. Always have a couple of talking points prepared beforehand, so you never get tongue-tied.
• Offering to present material. Then follow through with a clear, confident, and compelling delivery. For example, if your boss or team needs someone to cover a particular topic at the next meeting, volunteer for the task.
• Checking in with your boss or others to share what you are working on. Send a brief report to your boss or another influencer about the project or assignment. You can present it in the form of a question. “I did this and this and this … am I on track? What would you like to see next?”
• Coming to your formal reviews and informal one-on-ones with your boss prepared to show and explain your part in the work and in strengthening the company’s bottom line.
• Taking on higher-profile responsibilities. On a continuous basis, strive to look for increasingly higher-profile projects that others can’t help but notice. Make sure you can outline exactly how you’ll devote time to a new project while keeping up with your current workload. (Hint: Delegate as much as possible, which will also show your leadership skills!) Taking on ambitious projects will build your visibility in the organization, preparing you to exert greater influence. That’s the best way to prepare yourself for a promotion to the job you wish you had.
• Looking for opportunities to connect with higher-level leaders in your organization. If you hear about a meeting of organizational leaders and you feel you have something to contribute, ask an advocate if you can attend or send your input with him. You have little to lose by showing some ambition, and at the very least, you’re likely to put yourself on their radar. This is an excellent way to promote yourself at work.

When working with clients, I find many of them are critical of others who are excellent self-promoters. They are angry because their colleagues have advanced faster in their careers, and it’s frustrating when you consider yourself to be smarter and more talented than those who get noticed. I recommend they stop being critical and judgmental. Instead, they can learn from these people because they have had great success and most likely didn’t work as hard to get ahead. You may not like everything the self-promoters around you are doing, but you might learn a few tips that could directly impact your own career.

Behind-the-Scenes Work: Becoming Aware of Your Own Value

 Prepare to use the self-promotion strategies I’ve discussed by becoming more fully aware of the value you bring. These two techniques will help you stay on point whenever you have an opportunity to toot your own horn:

1 – Track your accomplishments

When put on the spot, it can be tough to remember all the things you’ve done over the past year. Instead of relying on memory, keep a file of all your accomplishments and current projects. At a performance review, meeting with executives, or introduction to a new client, you’ll have just the right examples of particular skills or competencies you want to highlight.

2 – Write a success story about yourself

Create a short “success story” about yourself so you’re always prepared for high-stakes conversations. The story arc consists of identifying the problem, determining the actions you took to help solve the problem, and presenting the overall results that you ultimately achieved. Your story will act as a concrete, memorable illustration of your strengths and accomplishments.

Building Mutually Beneficial Alliances

This tactic boils down to promoting the work of others so they’ll promote yours in turn. It doesn’t need to involve any formal agreements or secret pacts; it just relies on the idea that when you promote others, you give them positive feelings about you in turn. This encourages them to speak highly of you as well. It’s like cultivating alliances within your organization, only there’s nothing devious about it. You’re simply working toward your mutual success and building a culture of showing appreciation for good work.

Client Story Example: Nathan Learns to Leverage Self-Promotion Strategies

Nathan felt it was time to raise his visibility. He especially needed to get recognition if he hoped to advance. But Nathan struggled with how to promote himself without sounding like he was boasting.

Nathan has been producing excellent results for his company. But he hadn’t been sharing his wins and accomplishments in his workplace. To start tooting his own horn in subtle yet effective ways, he decided to write an email that outlined five specific things his team had done in the past month. He made sure to include measurable results to back up each point. He said, “I’m very proud of the work this team has done and wanted to take a moment to highlight their accomplishments.”

Notice how it does not look like self-promotion since Nathan is giving accolades to his team. Yet it still reflects well on him.

The CTO wrote back, “Thanks for pointing this out, and congratulations to the team. The quiet success of these accomplishments from you and your team has not gone unnoticed. The CEO and senior leadership were much appreciative, and your message helped them to fully grasp what has been achieved here.” He encouraged Nathan to keep them informed about their work and the value they bring. “It is important that we educate the business on the value we bring,” the CTO added.

Self-promotion, when done well, can build your visibility and lead to advancement. It helps management do a better job of recognizing who their truly skilled workers are. It also helped Nathan feel more valued and gain more satisfaction from his job.

Like Nathan, you now have numerous strategies for promoting yourself that feel natural rather than boastful. With these tricks in your pocket, it will feel easier to promote yourself at work. Taking all of these actions will help you to build your reputation in your workplace and set yourself up for a promotion opportunity in a leadership role.

 Joel will be glad to help you evaluate your visibility to find out where you can improve. Contact him for executive coaching support tailored to your individual needs. You can also read his book, Getting Ahead, to find out exactly what you need to do to stand out and get promoted at work.