It’s Not Self-Promotion, It’s About Gaining Visibility

We all know that friend/acquaintance on social media who seems to be in 24/7 self-promotion mode. Every post or tweet broadcasts their latest achievement, exotic trip, or new purchase. Whether you love, hate, or tolerate what they're doing, they have achieved one main thing -- they have your attention and you know what they’re up to. When it comes to the professional setting, like it or not, similar rules apply. Those who have mastered the art of self-promotion are typically the ones who get ahead faster than those of us who, by nature and/or nurture, are less inclined or even disincentivized to bring attention to our success (POC & women) or even just our simple presence. 

Unfortunately, hard work alone is not enough to earn promotion. The critical ingredient that those of us who try to “just keep our heads down and work” are missing, is visibility. If you consider the definition, ‘visibility’ works in two ways:

Visibility (noun): the state of being able to see1 or be seen2.

By virtue of keeping your head down, you are missing opportunities to be seen and to see(k) opportunities for yourself. Simply put, if no one knows who you are or what you’re up to, how can you advance? If your head is always down, how will you know what’s happening around you? Self-promotion is a necessary part of the game, but how do you get known at work without feeling icky about it? How do you go about raising your profile during a pandemic when “face time” at the office is no longer a thing?

It’s Not Self-Promotion, It’s About Gaining Visibility

Words matter and the term ‘self-promotion’ often provokes strong and usually negative feelings, leading most professionals to loathe engaging in it. Instead, let’s agree to replace ‘self-promotion’ with → ‘gaining visibility’. This is an important psychological distinction in that the former implies a sense of forcefulness and narcissism that most people don’t want to be associated with. The latter, however, recognizes the fundamental human need and desire to be noticed, valued, & validated by having our presence and contributions positively acknowledged. In other words, we as humans want to be seen. When we have visibility  -- we are being seen -- whether in our personal or professional lives.

When you don’t have visibility at work, the result can be getting bypassed for selection on key projects and worst of all, being passed over for promotion. Conversely, you can also miss opportunities to raise your hand to join that high visibility project or demonstrate that you are primed and ready for promotion. As much as we’d all like the quality of our work to speak for itself and earn promotion on its merit alone, we also have a part to play in speaking up for and about our work. If you have never attempted to discuss your progress on a project or share your wins as they happen (or even at all), can you honestly begrudge the person who is doing these things and reaping the rewards?

In the immortal words of the philosopher and poet Lil’ Kim, don’t be that person “player-hatin’ from the sidelines // get your own s**t, why you ridin’ mine?”

Sometimes in life, we have to call attention to ourselves in order to receive it. It doesn’t always just happen on its own. If you have ever played or watched team sports that involve ball movement, sometimes you have to yell, “Hey, I’m open!” so your teammate becomes aware of your presence. It’s not that they don’t want to pass you the ball, it’s often that they are so focused on what’s in front of them they didn’t know that you were there. At work, teammates might not know you’re open if you don’t let them know. By not calling for the ball, you also miss the chance to show them how good you are when you have possession. 

 In life and in work, it’s not only ok, but it’s often necessary to take up space and assert your presence in it. It’s only when your presence is known can your work and contributions be acknowledged. Here are some practical ways to get that done...

How to Gain Visibility

If you are not used to talking about yourself, let alone your success, it can feel daunting. Know that it’s ok to feel that way and that you have the ability to grow into it and gain comfort over time. 

Track Your Achievements: recording your track record is a necessary part of having one to point to. You have to know your worth in order to stand upon and share it. I created a “Killin’ it at Work” Google doc for my wife for her to record all the great things she’s doing in her new job. Whatever the title is that you give it, keep an achievement tracker handy. You’ll thank yourself later.

Make it Organic: try to develop the habit of discussing what you are working on & how it’s going with your manager (of course) and colleagues inside and outside your core team/department. This way, when you achieve breakthroughs or hit milestones you can update them in a genuine way as a continuation of a conversation you’ve already been having.

Don’t Downplay Yourself When Unnecessary: if you can honestly take full credit for something, don’t sell yourself short by distributing praise when it’s simply inaccurate. A client I’m currently working with used the word ‘we’ 24-times across 5 written stories he shared in the resume questionnaire he submitted to me. After pointing this out to him, he was able to cut that number down by more than half after reflecting on what he could actually take credit for.

Share Credit When Credit is Due: many achievements at work truly are a team effort. You can be the one to send out the announcement email spotlighting the team’s accomplishment, highlighting everyone’s contributions including your own.

Things to Share: surpassing targets, overcoming barriers to success, early/on time and/or under/on-budget project completion, meeting financial goals, time/cost savings etc. You’ll know best which wins are most relevant in your space, just be sure to tie them to larger company goals where possible.

How to Share in Pandemic/Non-Pandemic Times: during normal times I would advise sharing what you’re up to and your successes in conversation, as much as possible. Under current circumstances, it’s harder to have a casual conversation with colleagues that isn’t scheduled. This said, pandemic or not, sharing your achievements in writing creates a digital paper trail that you can always refer back to. Whether you use Slack, MS Teams, JIRA or any other communication/project management platform, you can leverage the appropriate channel, thread, or message board to share your successes as they occur. When all else fails, there’s always email announcements to your team/department/company. 

I used to send a weekly email on Fridays to my manager documenting my achievements for the week on larger projects/responsibilities. It also covered my next steps & any challenges that had arisen she needed to be aware of as I worked to resolve them.

How to Frame It: ultimately, your goal is to share the facts about what you have been up to and if they just so happen to make you look good…oh well! ;-) A great way to be authentic in what you share is to share things that excite you about what you have achieved and how it supports broader goals. You can also share your learnings from solving a problem that might help others solve their own. If you can find ways to make your success valuable to others, you are boosting them up and increasing your value at the same time.

Gaining visibility takes time, effort, & intentionality, but it’s attainable in small steps. Perhaps you might even need to start by giving yourself permission to acknowledge & celebrate your wins. From there, it’s about finding ways that feel true to who you are to share your success in real-time.

This is not about saying, “I’m the best,” it’s about saying, “I’m here.”