Toot your horn- Part 1
If you’re like me, then certain words, phrases, or quotes you’ve heard over the years get stuck in your brain. These are not the famous words, phrases, or quotes that were used to change the world; they’re nowhere close to, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” or those that have become a part of our pop culture lexicon like, “I think we’re going to need a bigger boat.”
No, the lines I’m thinking of aren’t particularly that memorable to many of us, but for whatever reason, they are there, shoved into some deep recess of our memory banks until they pop out to the forefront of our brains when they’re summoned - either consciously or subconsciously. For me, one of these lines is from the movie Fletch: “I’ll have a bloody mary, and a steak sandwich, and a…steak sandwich.”
Another one deals with the subject that we’ll be discussing this week and in next Sunday’s column as well: promoting ourselves at work. Whenever I hear the words, “self-promotion” or “promoting yourself,” Homer Simpson’s voice echoes through my brain. In one episode of The Simpsons, Homer tries to be an inventor like his hero, Thomas Edison. At one point he and Marge are having a conversation about Edison and Homer calls him a “shameless self-promoter.” For some reason those three words have stuck with me. Is it my subconscious making an extra effort to heed the warning of tooting my horn too much?
Was it something stirring in my soul trying to inspire me to become an inventor like Edison? Or was it just a notion put forth by The Simpsons writers that maybe one of the most influential inventors of our time might have also wanted a little recognition for his work? While I may never know why those words are permanently stamped in my memory bank, it does make me think about the concept of self-promotion at work.
Most of us want to be acknowledged for our work; it rates higher on our list of desires than even making more money. A recent Entrepreneur magazine article covered a poll taken by Boston Consulting Group of more than 200,000 employees around the world to create a top-10 list of factors that influence our happiness at work. They found that employees value the following (in order of importance):
Appreciation for their work
Good relationships with colleagues
Good work-life balance
Good relationships with superiors
Company’s financial stability
Learning and career development
Job security
Attractive fixed salary
Interesting job content
Company values
While feeling appreciated is ranked as the number one factor for being happy at work, it’s also something that’s beyond our control. Think about it: relying on others to first recognize and then appreciate our hard work is the number one way for us to feel happy about our jobs. My wife and I always tell our kids that we can’t control what others do, just our own actions and reactions. But, in this instance, we’re letting others’ reactions control our happiness at work. Does that make sense?
Isn’t that being passive? Shouldn’t we take an active part in this process? I’m not talking about going onto the office collaboration app and telling everyone how awesome you are because you crushed your sales numbers this month or that without you the company would cease to exist. I’m saying that we should take a more active part in the recognition process and feeling more appreciated at work. In other words, we all could do a better job promoting ourselves.
I recently talked with Dan Schawbel, Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Generation Y research and consulting firm, a world-renowned career and workplace expert, and a New York Times bestselling author of Promote Yourself about how we can better promote ourselves and get the recognition we deserve at work. This issue is crucial to having a successful work life, and it’s one that we should really understand a lot better. Therefore, our conversation with Schawbel begins this week and continues next week:
Mark Fadden (MF): “Please describe how you help workers promote themselves.”
Dan Schawbel (DS): “I give workers the confidence and tools they need in order to stand out for the right reasons. The confidence comes from focusing on your core expertise and the tools are the communication vehicles used for them to showcase their expertise to their colleagues. These could include an internal network, social media, a side conversation and a written blog.”
MF: “Is there a certain overall philosophy that we should have with regard to promoting ourselves at work?”
DS: “The main philosophy is to uncover your unique talents and then present them in such a way that you’re helping solve problems. By helping your manager, and team, accomplish their goals, they will be more likely to support you. Promoting yourself isn’t about bragging, it’s about doing your best work, gaining the support of those around you, and moving forward in your career.
MF: “What are the top five ways that we can promote ourselves at work?”
DS: “1. Make your manager’s job easier by doing the work they don’t want to do or have time for.
2. Meet with your colleagues regularly and see how your expertise can be beneficial to solving their problems.
3. Master your current job role and then start to expand your responsibilities.
4. Take on a project outside of your job description that you know could have a positive effect on your company.
5. Participate in any internal company blog or community so that people know you exist how that you’re actively contributing.”
MF: “How does self-promotion at work not turn into shameless self-promotion?”
DS: “Promoting yourself is about solving other people’s problems with your expertise and doing your best work so people seek you out. Shameless self-promotion, on the other hand, is about taking credit for others work or continuing to say how great you are, sometimes with little substance to back up those claims.”
Please tune in next week for our second and final installment of our conversation with Schawbel. For more information on him and his book, Promote yourself, visit www.danschawbel.com.
This story was originally published January 7, 2018 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Toot your horn- Part 1."