#1 Secret to Getting Ahead: Communicate Your Achievements

by Guest Contributor

The current business environment is frenetic. People are too busy today to go out of their way to find you, recognize and reward you.

The good news is that YOU can create the visibility and credibility you need to move your career forward.

You can control how others perceive you in the work environment. You can learn to communicate to others what value you bring to the table. In short, you can be visible, take credit for your accomplishments, showcase your skills, and build your reputation both inside and outside your company to strengthen your subject matter expertise.

The 2011 Catalyst study, The Myth of the Ideal Worker: Does Doing All the Right Things Really Get Women Ahead?,  supports the importance of communicating your value. After following 3,000 high potential MBA graduates, Catalyst found that doing all the “right things” such as being proactive, requesting high profile assignments, and asking for promotions and raises, did not significantly help women advance their careers.  What Catalyst found to have a positive impact on women’s careers was the communication of their achievements. This was one way women were able to advance their careers and increase their compensation.

This study shows us that when women are proactive in making their achievements known, they advance further, increase their compensation growth, and are more satisfied with their careers.

YOU can be visible, take credit for your accomplishments, showcase your skills, and build your reputation both inside and outside your company to strengthen your subject matter expertise.

But how do you promote yourself in an authentic confident manner? How do you promote yourself so that others will pay attention?

Here are some suggestions on how to build your authentic  self-promotion skills:

1.  Understand your value proposition.This is the foundation of authentic self-promotion and gives you the confidence you need to talk about yourself in a positive manner.
   • Identify what your unique strengths are and how they have helped you in the past or are helping you now in your current position.
   • Ask yourself: What are my accomplishments? What do these say about me?
2. Communicate your value. Create your personal value proposition or value statement so that you can clearly articulate your value to others.
   • Think strategically and identify your web of influence or power network inside and outside your organization in order to advance your career. Build and leverage these relationships and create a plan to communicate and be consistently visible to these contacts.
   • Self-promote in ways that management cares about and speak the language of business outcomes when talking about your accomplishments.
3. Demonstrate your value. Once you understand your value, you can demonstrate your value to others to establish your credibility.
   • Some examples of demonstrating your value might be:
     • Volunteer and take on high profile projects at work or in your community. This gives you the opportunity to show your leadership and ability to work well with a team.
     • Community involvement can be a great way to showcase your abilities and meet influential people at the same time.
     • Sitting on non-profit boards
     • Speak up in meetings and let your opinion be known.
     • Take credit for your accomplishments.
     • Use assertive communication.
     • Write a blog
     • Teach a course
     • Submit articles to become a subject matter expert
     • Radio/tv interviews

Authentic self-promotion can’t be faked. It comes from a true understanding of who you are and what unique value you bring to your job, your community and the world.

What is your unique value? Can you articulate it?

Follow Bonnie on Twitter @selfpromote and visit her site – one of the Forbes Top 100 websites for professional women – womenssuccesscoaching.com.