A book I’ve enjoyed reading this year is Woman of Influence: 9 Steps to Build Your Brand, Establish Your Legacy, and Thrive by Jo Miller. I highly recommend it to any aspiring leader, business owner, and professional.  She dedicates a whole chapter to “Amplifying Your Accomplishments” and this is my focus in today’s post.

In my professional career, I have been guilty of not wanting to self-promote because I felt my peers and others would perceive it as boasting. Learn from me ladies, self-promotion, when done well, is not only a right but your responsibility if you truly believe you have something of value to offer your sphere.

Here’s a nugget of wisdom Jo shares in her book:

“Your work does not speak for itself. You do.”

This bears repeating: working hard does not mean you will get the recognition you deserve.  It usually just means you get more unglamorous work dumped on you.

One of my clients, “Sharon” who is on the brink of breakthrough success in her role recognized this reality the hard way when she realized her boss was not her advocate. Sharon shared that she assumed her boss would tout her achievements because this is the way Sharon treats her team. For Sharon, self-promotion was very uncomfortable and felt inauthentic but with our coaching sessions, she started to view it in a new light, a much more positive light.

I agree with Jo Miller who states that for recognition to occur, your contribution needs to be visible. But it's only visible ladies if you are intentional about making it so.

I am a champion of the CliftonStrengths (Strengthsfinder) assessment because I strongly believe that the pathway to success and fulfillment in your work starts with knowing your strengths—your unique combo of sauces that when blended, sizzle! When you understand what you’re good at and why you’re good at it, you can leverage this understanding then promote and leverage them in your position. Your bosses will not know how to leverage your skillset if they have no clue about the signature strengths you bring.

In our coaching session, Sharon was able to shift her negative perception about self-promotion (which is not the same as boasting!) and identified a few powerful ways it could help her succeed in her new, much more visible role.

Here are a few key pointers that arose from that session in addition to a few others.

Effective self-promotion:

• Inspires confidence about your capabilities in others.

• Allows people to learn about you from your own perspective. Don't wait for your annual review to start tooting your horn. Schedule monthly or quarterly check-ins with your boss where you can assess your progress and get valuable feedback. 

• Gives your colleagues and bosses insight into your strengths. My “Clarity for Your Calling” guide is filled with questions and exercises to help you hone in on what is your secret sauce, your superpower at work. When you find your niche, pounce on opportunities to share your expertise in visible ways. 

• Allows you to be intentional and strategic about the traits and successes you want to bring to the fore. Tie your accomplishments to your company’s initiatives. Develop best practices that you can reproduce in different areas.

• Increases your visibility in the ways you want to be known for.  

 For self-promotion to be effective, it needs to be anchored in humility and in service to your bigger vision to use your influence to meaningfully impact your sphere. This context allowed Sharon not to feel “icky” in her quest to tout her accomplishments.

And like I shared with my client Sharon, self-promotion does not have to be a zero-sum game—it can and should be a both/and deal where you highlight and showcase the accomplishments of others on your team AND you give yourself the same courtesy by shedding light on your own contribution.  

Abound in your brilliance, friend!