Selling Yourself - MAC018

Managing A Career

As I covered in last week's episode on the Corporate Ladder - Episode 017, you may eventually reach a point in your career where the next rung has a limited number of opportunities to progress. In Episode 13 - A Little Bit of Luck, I talked about how luck is when preparation meets opportunity and that sometimes you have to make your own luck.

When the advancement will involve competition with others, you will need to have laid the groundwork in advance. You never know when an opportunity will appear, so you will need to be ready, so start today.

There are several key areas that you'll need to address before you can start selling yourself. So let's take a look at them.

Have something to sell. Build your skills, complete your projects and in general, do good work. These are the baseline requirements, but without it, none of the rest matters.

Know your strengths. You are going to be formulating a marketing plan and you will need to know what attributes to emphasize. Do a personal inventory and figure out what you do better than everyone else -- what sets you apart. If those strengths are not in alignment with the next level, update your IDP - Episode 002 and work with your leader to create an action plan to build those new strengths.

Identify your worth. Review your recent projects. How much value did they provide to the business -- not just in terms of capability, but in real numbers. Were there cost savings or cost avoidance? Time savings and efficiencies? Review Episode 001 - Higher Level Tasks and Episode 006 - Is your work Important or Urgent and focus on finding high-value assignments.

Find a spokesperson or champion. If you've built a strong network, this step will be easy. But try to figure out who do you know that will vouch for your capabilities and value? Is that someone who's voice matters? If you don't have a strong voice in your camp, start building your network.

Once all of the components are in place, you are ready to begin marketing. The thing about marketing is that it's a long game. It's about understanding the needs of the customer (the people in control of any future promotion) and adjusting the product (you) to meet those needs. This means that you need to understand what aspects will be considered when a promotion opportunity is available and make sure that you have aligned your strengths and values to them.

Another aspect of your personal marketing plan is that there should be a clear and consistent message. The old adage of "out of sight, out of mind" holds true here. You need to find a way to showcase your strengths and values -- and their alignment with the previously identified needs -- on a regular basis. I know most people don't enjoy writing status reports, but a well-crafted status report could serve these purposes well.

In a future episode, I'll cover more in-depth on what a good status report looks like, but in short, focus less on completed tasks and focus more on value provided. Send them "frequently enough, but not too often" such that you aren't annoying the recipients. Don't be afraid to include set-backs as long as you provide details on how you are either resolving them or preventing them in the future -- showing how you can handle adversity will build confidence and trust in you which is never a bad thing. Regardless of how you deliver the message, being persistent but tactful will allow you to stay front-of-mind with the ultimate deciders.

I'd love to hear from you. Access the ManagingACareer.com website and let me know how this podcast has helped you in your career development. From the website, jump to the community and answer this week's poll about how frequently should one send out a status report.