How to sell yourself at work: The art of strategic self promotion.

Recently I interviewed two very successful female leaders for my podcast, discussing the great strides they’d made in their respective careers and each of them described how humbled they felt to attain the levels they had. 

But why? They both worked and continue to work incredibly hard to achieve their respective positions, so why the humility and the need to diminish their accomplishments? It also seems apt to write about this having just been awarded at the 2019 Stevie Awards For Women In Business for my women’s leadership development work with This Woman Can. A hard but satisfying graft given my transition from corporate CEO to entrepreneur, I’m incredibly proud to be recognized.

If I’m honest, humility is not a trait that comes easily to me or am comfortable with - I’m a glory girl. I will stand up and accept the recognition for my achievements. My career grew up in sales environments with the pressure of targets and the adrenaline rush of hitting same or winning a big account. I can recall many weird and wonderful tactics utilized to motivate sales teams from all inclusive holidays, monetary bonuses for top performers to the threat of unemployment for poor performance and in one job a ball and chain at your desk for being the worst performer that week (I wonder if that’d be legal now?)

In these environments, the performance playing field was equal, same target, same resources and irregardless male or female it was your numbers that counted and the bragging rights were sweet.

Then as a CEO where your commercial performance was equally as important as your performance as a people leader. It’s a feeling I never want to lose and yes after all the work I put in to land that account, deliver EBITDA - the recognition was sometimes worth more to me than the bonus.

Throughout my career that recognition continues to be my personal motivation.

The Power of Self Advocacy

I discovered the power of self advocacy during an interview for my first managerial role and being asked the question “Why should we offer you the position?” My response - “You won’t interview anyone better than me”, confident that I had and could totally back it up.

I had become comfortable using my achievements as evidence to drive my ascension, comfortable utilizing my strategic brag. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with gratitude or humility but sometimes it's masking our ability to take ownership of our achievements that we’ve worked hard to achieve.?

Why do we feel the need to diminish our accomplishments?

I’m totally cognizant that a lot of women have not been exposed to similar sales environments. Through a variety of teachings, they’ve been taught to value humility, stay small and blend into the background. Society in general says that women should not be prideful, brag or boast and in her article “5 Ways 'Humility' Is Keeping Women Stuck And Afraid” Kathy Caprino outlines how damaging this can be for women and their careers.

No one can advocate for you better than you, so how are you going to shine the light on what you can bring to the table? How can you promote your work and experiences without feeling sleazy/ in a way that puts your point across?

Enter the art of strategic self promotion!

Get Comfortable Talking About Your Results – Have you led a team to success? Landed a big account? Closed a difficult negotiation? Completed a big project on time and under budget? I could go on but you get the idea. When you attain a significant result,don’t wait for your annual appraisal to be recognized for it, that’s far too late! In sales we were always reminded that you were only as good as your last sale, so you need to be recognized for in as real time as possible - send your manager a brief email outlining the result—as soon as it happens.

I can hear you bristle as this doesn’t come easily to everyone, but bear in mind that self-promotion isn’t actually about you. It’s about the impact of your work—and that’s not something you want to hide.

You can also think about it this way: When you look good, so does your Boss, and so does the company. Sharing your results won’t just make you look good, it will make your manager happy, too.

Raise Your Internal Profile - Does your organization have an internal newsletter, intranet portal, employee meetings, and recognition awards? A vehicle that reports employee news and successes? Learn how results are made public in your company and how accomplishments can added to the agenda. Maybe you just need to speak up and share your latest project at a team meeting, or submit an article to the newsletter editor.

Obviously, be selective - not every achievement wins (or deserves) air time – if in doubt seek guidance from your boss, a mentor, or longer serving peers first. Try asking, “I was thinking of sharing how we landed that major account from Acme Ltd in the company newsletter? What do you think of that idea?” The point is, you don’t have to sit and wait for someone else to publicize your accomplishments for you, you can take ownership.

Become The Fountain Of Knowledge Aka An Industry Expert – Unless you plan to never leave your current organization, you should also be developing your external brand identity. An easy start is to be cognizant of how you’re perceived via your social media presence. Be strategic on LinkedIn, Twitter, even Facebook—anywhere you’re connected with professional contacts—and use those platforms to communicate about what you want to be known for. I’m talking about your work, not your Saturday night club appearances. I can’t say enough about how these platforms are the first line reference points for recruiters.

In the real world, you can promote yourself as an expert by writing or speaking about your area of expertise. Industry publications and websites often need contributors—check out the guidelines for the ones in your field, and propose a topic or submit an article. Online knowledge portals such as LinkedIn, Thrive Global and Medium are all great places to blog your knowledge.

If you get the opportunity, don’t shy away from giving a presentation at an industry conference or becoming a guest on a podcast. Be proactive, contact the organizers of prospective events and propose a topic you’d like to present on.

Build Your Own Custom Network – We all know about the power of the old Boys’ networks and their ability to help each other advance their careers. You certainly don’t have the time to recreate a network hundreds of years old but you can create your own network—your own web of relationships with like-minded people.

Whether its ten or 50 women, consider how you can create or foster a group that’s dedicated to sharing resources and helping each other succeed. I’ve started doing just that with my online community This Woman Can  

Within the group we regularly share information about the challenges and successes female leaders face with the goal of helping each other become visible leaders in our respective organizations and fields. We meet virtually to share ways to promote ourselves, as well as promoting one another.

Developing a strategic network of relationships now will create long-term career benefits—both for you and your fellow participants.

Yes, hard work brings success—but if no one knows about it you’re not going to get the opportunities you want, you need to make those awesome results visible to those who can impact your career. So get up and at it – there are new rules in town.

Janice Sutherland is an award winning women’s leadership expert and founder of This Woman Can an online community for professional women. She provides coaching and training specializing in helping women and organizations build leadership skills through Executive Mentorship, Leadership Training and Executive Team Facilitation for both corporate executives and entrepreneurs globally. She is a sought after keynote presenter for corporate and nonprofit environments and speaks on issues relating to leadership, women’s advancement, professional success and work/life alignment. For more details, visit www.janicesutherland.com

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