Promote Yourself Without Promoting Yourself

On any team, promoting yourself and taking credit for the results you achieve requires walking a fine line. Leaders frown upon team members who hold themselves above the team, while colleagues distrust those who want to draw attention to themselves. 

Those who aggressively self-promote their accomplishments are often viewed as having sharp elbows.  Colleagues who willingly let their personal ambitions push others aside as they promote themselves to those above become disliked and shunned. 

At the same time, a failure to let those above know about the good work you’ve been doing is a recipe for being taken for granted. Those who put their heads down and refrain from self-promotion are often overlooked and fail to be rewarded for their hard work. Navigating the balancing act of too much or too little self-promotion can be exasperating. 

For those frustrated by walking this tightrope, it’s time to learn the secret of self-promotion. 

Leaders and those above always have an appetite for four pieces of information: 

• Talented team members who are doing great work

• Updates on the biggest projects or clients 

• Market trends you learn from others

• Organizational changes they are blind to 

Their job as leaders is to stay abreast of all four. They have a deep need to know what is going on so they can update their leaders or offer an elevator speech about their insights to those who are important to them. 

The funny thing is, when you provide them a complete update on one or more of those items, you are inadvertently telling them what results you have achieved and aggressively promoting yourself. Without ever using the “me” word or taking credit for anything, the update places you in the bullseye for good work. 

For instance, consider an update that goes something like this: “Kelly on my team has been doing exceptional work. I hope you’ll reach out with your congratulations. At our recent presentation at XYZ company, Kelly gave the most compelling case for our team and helped us win the project. While on-site, we learned that XYZ is going through a similar technology transformation that we are and are using the same outside vendor, ABC, our tech committee has selected.” 

What does this update really communicate? I have won the mandate from XYZ company and in case you didn’t remember, I serve on the enterprise tech committee. Here’s the kicker: The more you update your leader on these four topics they always want to know, the more you indirectly promote yourself. 

Those who are proud of their work and want their leaders to know, without coming across as self-promotional, simply feed their leaders with the updates and information they desire. Leaders always have an appetite to learn about these four topics. 

Avoiding taking credit or referring to yourself directly is the key. Learn to promote yourself without promoting yourself. Leaders never forget those colleagues who skillfully walk the high wire of self-promotion.