Self-Promotion? Dual-Promotion? Or give yourself a daily promotion?

I saw a LinkedIn post where an "influencer" was advocating "Once you realize the whole world is run by shameless self-promoters you almost have no choice but to put yourself out there."

Then of course... in the fine print, that influencer was trying to sell his system of how to be a self-promoter.

It's crap like this that makes me sick. The fake Guru's. The guru's with a hidden agenda.

Well.... pain can be a teacher.

I decided to dive deeper into this "influencer's" statement.

Lets start with some definitions:

• Shameless: doing something where you don't worry whether its right or wrong
• Self-Promotion: the act of furthering one's own growth, advancement, or prosperity

So as I was thinking about "shameless self-promotion" ..... it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Maybe many people DESPISE these shameless self-promotors who appear to be the "leaders" in their industry because they are constantly self-promoting themselves in the WRONG way. They sound self-absorbed. They sound narcissistic. They are inauthentic.

So if we see a self-proclaimed leader in our industry promoting themselves in the wrong way... we might be hesitant to further our own growth, advancement, or prosperity because we don't want to be like them.

And maybe, just maybe, this happens INSIDE the workplace too.

"Leaders" and managers might exhibit some of this behavior. Maybe they try to take all the credit for something one of their employees did. Maybe they are constantly bragging about the projects and results they've accomplished in the past. Maybe they feel threatened by the talent on their team. And in their incompetence and insecurities.... most of their communication is about themselves. They are so focused on their own accomplishments, they often lose sight of the people that helped them get there.

And unfortunately, in today's social media environment.... many "influencers" shamelessly self-promote in order to try to GET SOMETHING from their followers.... weather its a simple like or some sort of monetary exchange.

So how can we self-promote without being a jerk?

Interestingly enough, some really smart people at Wharton, George Mason, and Vanderbilt did a big study on this. You can find it HERE

The quick abstract:

To receive credit and to create favorable impressions, individuals need to share information about their past accomplishments. Claiming credit to demonstrate competence, however, can harm perceptions of warmth and likability. In fact, prior work has conceptualized self-promotion as a hydraulic challenge: tactics that boost perceptions along one dimension (e.g., competence) harm perceptions along the other dimensions (e.g., warmth). In this work, we identify a novel approach to self-promotion: We show that by combining other-promotion (promoting others) and self-promotion, which we term “dual-promotion”, individuals can project both warmth and competence to make better impressions on observers.

We actually see dual promotion working out in the real world often, particularly in sports. Typically the most liked sports stars may talk about their performance a little bit, but then give credit to the other players on their team.

We see "dual promotion" a lot less in corporate environments. But when we do see it... it feels really good. Some companies have a GREAT culture of gratitude and appreciation.

I do think "dual promotion" is certainly a better tactic than shameless self promotion.

Although...

In my humble opinion, I feel like there's a level of "promotion" that is even more rewarding.

With that, lets get into today's lesson!

GIVE YOURSELF A DAILY "PROMOTION" BY BUILDING A DAILY HABIT OF CAREER GROWTH

85% of adults have low self confidence.

Many of us turn to social media, and maybe even "shameless self-promotion" to try to get external validation of our self-worth. And that can turn into a brutal negative feedback loop.

But what if we can get internal validation instead?

Wouldn't that be the best type of promotion?

So this is where Career Growth comes in. If we look at my FASST Career Growth Model, we need to assess ourselves honestly, and start optimizing our most impactful skills in order to grow our careers.

And here's the best part. I've seen incredible results when people just spend 5-25 minutes a day optimizing their skills. A little bit of progress every day adds up to big results.

And this is where the right kind of "SELF-PROMOTION" comes in. Remember the definition above? Self-Promotion: the act of furthering one's own growth, advancement, or prosperity.

We can drastically increase our confidence and self worth because we are a little bit better or a little bit faster than we were the day before. And as we achieve mastery, we can inspire and teach others to grow along the career path that we've taken!

Career Growth DOESNT have to mean a new title, a bigger paycheck, or a corner office. Sure, those things are nice, although career growth really means to mature, improve or expand your career life in some way. And with this career growth we build our intrinsic motivation and self-confidence, rather than needed external rewards and validation. - Dan Clapper

With that, lets jump into action!

ACTION TIME:

1. What type of self-promotion do you engage in?
2. How can you build in more "Dual Promotion"?
3. How can you build your daily habit of Career Growth?

As always, my heart fills with gratitude that you've taken a few moments of your time to read through this article. I promise to continue to provide fresh, actionable, content week after week to help inspire growth and learning in the workplace. We need to overcome the shameless self-promotors, and help inspire others to grow... now more than ever. I truly appreciate you. Thanks again!

Your Friend,

Dan