Learn The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion at Work

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Call it personal branding, call it self-promotion, or whatever other name you might feel appropriate or prefer, it’s a taboo no more. If you wish to grow your career, you will have to brag about yourself, to some extent at least. You might think that you have not done it before or you don’t know how to do it or that it is unethical.

Well if you don’t do it, somebody else will and will squander the opportunities that you want and may deserve as well but nobody noticed you because they didn’t know enough about you and your work. So brush up your bragging skills and stand up and be noticed.

Let’s have a look at following 5 simple tips for self-promotion at work.

Know your strengths and tell everyone about it

Make a list of what you are good at and include the projects and endeavors you took up and succeeded in. Include failures in another list, so you know what territory to stay away from. This would work as a kind of personal map for you to help you decide what you can promote about yourself. Once the list is set, go on, sing your achievements, it wasn’t a cakewalk anyways, you earned them, so you might as well go ahead and tell the tale of your sweat and perseverance.

Back it up with evidence

Don’t just say anything. Be ready with proper evidences for everything you say so that anytime somebody doubts you or requires further authentication, you can promptly prove it. Update your social media channels regularly so people can know about it. Social media today is one of the easiest ways to get noticed.

Related reading: Getting it Right- Personal Branding Tips for Job Seekers

Brush up those communication skills

People will listen to stories of effort, perseverance and success, not of arrogance and haughtiness. So learn how to say it, and say it well. Don’t be too loud and egoistic, but learn to make the people feel that you are the best in a very subtle way. Don’t boast; just speak, sometimes without even using words. You want people to respond to you. Not get irritated by you.

Share that spotlight

Don’t just grab all the credit for yourself. Share the spotlight with all those people who contributed to your success. As an added incentive you could rest assured that they will be your live testimonials and go about spreading word of your talent and abilities to everyone. Even otherwise, encouraging team members is always a plus.

It’s a continuous process not an overnight development

Don’t expect miracles to happen overnight. Self-promotions don’t happen overnight nor do they yield results overnight. It involves building relationships the goal is to create a buzz about yourself, and if you intend to do it overnight, and then remember it will fizzle out just as fast. It will require a lot of effort on your part and time as well. It may not always be that slow and steady wins the race, but yes, it would require you to be patient and persistent for sure.

When it comes to self promotion, never consider it to be a taboo or over the board so far as you know where to draw the line. It is one area, where even the smallest things matter a lot. Take advantage of all possible opportunities to establish contact with whomever you can. Don’t be pushy, just remain decent and add a tone or two of self promotion. Eventually you will generate a strong and ever-expanding base of supporters that would endorse you and your work that will create the desirable buzz about you at your work place. And the best time to start this is now.

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