The Myth of Self-Promotion for Professionals: Why It's a New Requirement for Success

There’s a subject that is totally “in my face” these days that I feel compelled to talk about. It’s the myth that you don’t need to promote yourself if you are a professional like a lawyer, engineer, CPA, or MBA.?

There’s a false sense of security out there that professional credentials only will speak for you and will work to elevate your expertise, authority, and visibility. But this belief can be costly for your career.

I speak to professionals weekly who are unemployed, under-employed, or anticipating layoffs or promotion caps. In today’s world of transformation, budget cuts, and ageism (yes, I said it), there are a lot of professionals who are not doing as well as they’d like to. It’s the professionals who promote themselves who are doing the best.

In today’s world of knowledge work, we are all self-promoters—that is, self-advocates, thought leaders, and knowledge-sharers. The world of self-promotion (personal branding, speaking, writing, advocacy, and so on), belongs to professionals, too.?

In this next article in my latest series on “The New World of Knowledge Work,” let’s discuss this critical (but touchy, even taboo) topic about promotion for professionals and what you should do to up your value and opportunities in ways that are “professional” and also effective.

Why Credentials Are Not Enough: A New Relationship with Promoting Ourselves

Many of us professionals get a bit queasy at the thought of “personal branding.” If you’re like me, you decided to go into accounting, engineering, or IT because of your love of protocols, spreadsheets, technology, calculations, and quants. You might have gone into the professions to avoid anything (and everything) to do with marketing and sales.

When I was in training to become a CPA, I remember being taught that you couldn’t effectively “promote” yourself based on price or quality as superior over other CPAs. There was an insinuation — whether overt or implied — that the designation alone would promote you.

NEWS FLASH: Your professional credentials don’t have magical qualities and are rarely enough to move you toward your career goals in today’s new world of knowledge work.

In fact, there is nothing unethical or wrong with self-promotion. Companies today are competing 24/7 with websites, AI insights, media, communications agencies on retainer, conference sponsorships, lobbyists, and everything else organizations are doing to give themselves an edge. As individuals, we need to do the same thing–to support our teams and ourselves.?

If you leave your “voice” to others (or the credential letters next to your name), you’ll be “voice-less” or overlooked. You are competing with people who can do your jobs who live across the world. Professional training and designations aren’t enough.

The Lifecycle of Professional Careers

Starting out: Why we go into a profession

The professions, like law, accounting, engineering, are great opportunities when you are young and eager to get a financial foothold, learn a set of skills and standards, get trained and mentored, and become exposed to different organizations.

I believe that the professions are especially useful to give you:

1. A foot in the door –? Professional credentials give you a standard, consistent and recognized set of skills and competences. This makes you marketable by allowing recruiters and companies to understand your skills to match them with entry or intermediate roles within organizations (e.g., Project Engineer, Intermediate Accountant).
2. A seat at the table – Executive teams and Boards of Directors always have room at their tables from someone from each of the professions including a lawyer, accountant, engineer, IT professional, and HR expert, so early and mid-level people can have great opportunities, especially at smaller and mid-sized companies.
3. A community – Professions give you camaraderie in professional groups, your industry, and your organization. You will find common ground and common “war stories” to share with peers of like professionals.

Mid-career: When things can slow or plateau

Let me bring up a subject that isn’t popular but needs to be said. Professional designations have a shelf-life. They open the door. But they don’t keep the door open forever and they don’t always guarantee a ladder on the other side of that door.

If you look at a major company, they will hire hundreds of accountants who are young CPAs, for example. But there may be limited spaces for VP Finance, Controller, and CFO.

When we are young (let’s say sub 35 or 40) and in hot demand, we think it will last forever. We run the risk of becoming complacent. Like a rockstar or Olympic athlete (yet with none of the glamor or recognition), we have to recognize that our marketability doesn’t last forever nor is it guaranteed.

To maintain and grow your career, opportunities, and salary potential in the workplace, you need to build your brand. You need to differentiate. You need to work on yourself.

I honestly did not get this when I was younger. But I’ve come to understand this phenomena in real life as my business has grown. I’ve also seen how my career, satisfaction, and authority have grown as I began a concerted effort to grow my own personal brand and voice (after being dragged, pushed, cajoled, and dared by professional friends and advisors).?

Let’s face some harsh realities:

• Your career or success is not guaranteed after getting a professional designation and first jobs.
• Organizations are putting less and less weight on education and more on experience and track record.
• Content and access to share it has opened the door for people to show expertise and demonstrate it far beyond professional designations.

Senior levels: New requirements for leaders as “influencers”

In today’s age of “influencer leadership”, organizations aren’t looking for leaders with just financial acumen, technical competence, and big company experience. The rise of influencer leadership – in business, politics, the media and is here to stay for good. There is no turning back. That means, organizations want leaders who are media-savvy, popular, charismatic, and can influence change in their companies and their industry too. Personal branding is becoming the new calling card for leaders whether you are headed to the Executive suite, the boardroom, senior consulting circles, or running your own business.

Getting Started with Self-Promotion

Self-promotion is nebulous (but don’t worry, we will cover it in the next articles), and you can call it whatever you like. (My publishing strategist talks a lot about having a “platform”, building relationships, and sharing “sticky” ideas.) But here are some of the things for professionals to consider when thinking about starting (or ramping up) your own plan for self-promotion:

• The projects you have taken on and your portfolio of work.
• Who you know, your tribe and how you work together.
• The broadness and depth of your personal and professional network.
• What you teach to others in your organization, industry, and profession.
• How you show up (speak, participate, or help out) at events and professional circles.

In the next articles in this series, we will explore these topics such as sales, branding, content creation for professionals and other knowledge workers in the new world of knowledge work.?

I’ll be in the trenches with you as I’ve added one element to my personal branding at a time–a book (phew that was rewarding and hard), a personal newsletter, this LinkedIn newsletter, virtual and in-person speaking (which has lead me to meet some fantastic people and clients), piloting my own workshops (a fail, but I’ll try again!), short videos–that’s been the hardest but also so much learning and fun.?

You can figure out one place to start and grow, too.?

Stay tuned!

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