How to get self-promotion right

It’s a simple fact that no one likes a showoff. Listening to someone who is constantly bragging about themselves can be incredibly tedious, especially at work. However, self-promotion, if done right, can go a long way to opening the right career doors and can even help you get an actual promotion.

The key is getting the balance right and putting yourself forward for the right opportunities.

#1 Change how you think about self-promotion

If the thought of self-promotion makes you cringe, you’re not alone. As a nation, we tend to shy away from talking ourselves up and are on the whole more likely to make fun of ourselves than boast about our accomplishments. To get away from the cringe factor you need to change the way you think about self-promotion.

You might think that your boss will be aware of how well you are performing but you need to remember that your boss also has a lot on their plate so they might not see everything that’s going on. So, by doing a little self-promotion you’re simply keeping your boss in the loop on your current performance which is much less cringe-inducing than bragging about yourself.

#2 Understand your strongest skills and best accomplishments

Before you can actively start to promote yourself at work, you need to understand where your strengths lie. Do you excel at manipulating data? Have you come up with an efficient new process? Or perhaps you have a talent for training new team members?

Make a list of your strengths and how they have contributed to successful projects you have worked on. Keep adding to this list and refer to it when you need a reminder of all that you have accomplished in your role.

Job Search Concept Strengths Weakness

#3 Don’t wait until your performance review

Rather than wait until your next formal review and bombarding your boss with a full list of your achievements, try to find opportunities to bring them up informally.

Perhaps you have a weekly check-in with your boss? This could be a great opportunity to give a short, sharp round up of all the great work you’ve been doing under the guise of keeping them up to date with how a project is progressing.

#4 Don’t take all the credit for a group project

Giving credit where it’s due is just as important as highlighting your own success, so if you had help on a project make sure you share the kudos.

By recognising the efforts of your coworkers, you’ll come off as a great team player whilst giving yourself a great opportunity to casually promote your own work at the same time.

Self-promotion isn’t just talking about what you did well in the past. It’s also about putting yourself forward for more opportunities to succeed in the future.

Hipster young man showing female colleague laptop

#5 Put yourself forward for more responsibility

Self-promotion isn’t just talking about what you did well in the past. It’s also about putting yourself forward for more opportunities to succeed in the future.

Talk to your boss about taking on more duties that play to your strengths. Perhaps there’s an upcoming project that you could take the lead on? Look for things that you can take real ownership of. This will not only demonstrate your worth but should also give you more confidence in your abilities.

Just be careful to strike a good balance between taking on more and keeping up with your existing workload. If you already have too much on your plate, don’t pile on more.

Self-promoting may come more naturally to some than others but once you stop thinking of it as boasting and start thinking about it as an important part of your career, you’ll learn it’s not as hard as you might think.

Just like the skills you learned at school or university to prepare you for the world of work, the skill of self-promotion is essential to your success.

The perfect opportunity to use this newfound skill could be at your next interview. Search all jobs in your local area at jobs24.com.

Posted on May 5, 2021