Self Promotion That Works

Leadership Coaching Notes NOVEMBER 2009

Self Promotion That Works

Mary Ellen and Cora were aspiring leaders, but too often watched as others won assignments they wanted. Mary Ellen was overlooked because she believed others would observe her strengths and choose her on merit. Cora was derailed because she was too often the first to tell every one of her successes. Both strategies failed, but both leaders changed the course of their careers with a third approach. If you want to gain visibility and increase your options, keep reading.

What Worked

1. Follow the Rule of 3: Mary Ellen identified the 3 talents, skills or resources that made her essential for new assignments. Cora cut her bragging list and focused only on the 3 most significant strengths she wanted others to remember.

What You Can Do: Stay on Message: If you don’t know why decision makers should choose you over others, stop and identify the top 3 attributes and capabilities you want them to remember. Test your thinking with a mentor to learn how powerfully you’ve chosen and adjust as needed. Check: What talents, skills and resources does your dream assignment require? What are the top 3 reasons you should be chosen for it?

2. Close the Gap: When a senior leader asked Mary Ellen how she was, she replied with a smile, “Great.” Cora replied with a 5-minute monologue. Both learned to respond with enthusiasm about a recent “gap” they or their team closed. “Great. We just cut our cycle time by 10%.” “Tired. We just finished a successful project on time.”

What You Can Do: Create Your Headlines: When others ask how you are, enthusiastically tell them the headline of a story that exemplifies the top strength(s) you want them to remember – only the headline. You’ll know it’s powerful if it leads others to respond, “How did you do that?” Check: What recent performance gaps you have closed? What success or progress exemplifies 1 or more of your top 3 strengths? What is your attention-getting headline about the change you or your team created? Be ready!

3. Equip Others to Brag for You: When others responded to Mary Ellen and Cora’s headlines with, “Tell me more,” both were ready with the 3 specific actions they or their teams took to achieve strong results. No silent humility or endless details of how they addressed a tough challenge – just 3 short, clear contributions. “We identified bottlenecks, sat down as a team to figure out how to fix them and relentlessly implemented our plan. It worked!” “We learned all of the client’s needs and obstacles up front, gave them 1 point of contact to streamline communications and ate lots of pizza for the last 2 days.”

What You Can Do: Stay Ready to Highlight Your Top 3 Strengths: Looking at your dream assignment, what strengths do you bring to it and what headline introduces your story of success? Write down the 3 ways you’ll respond when another asks, “How did you do that?” Stay prepared. Keep a headline and 3 concise strengths ready for 2 memorable stories, always.

Business Impact

Mary Ellen and Cora chided me about using the Boy Scout motto, “Be Prepared,” but it worked. Both strengthened their images and senior relationships by thinking, preparing, and practicing promoting themselves and their teams. They now think of self promotion like fishing – bait a great hook, lay it in the water well and wait to see who seizes their headline. They both enjoy the “sport” and succeed more often using this easy approach.

What’s Next

These days, when Senior Leaders and Mentors have less time to help advance your career, you need to be highly skillful at promoting yourself. If you or a leader you coach would like to accelerate your success, give me a call. Our first conversation is always free.
Liked the article? Didn’t like it? Have any questions? Drop me a line mkimbell@corporateadventure.com. I’d love to hear from you!

All the best,

Meredith Kimbell
Executive Advisor,Strategy Consultant
Corporate Adventure

Leadership Coaching Notes uses real or composite client examples drawn from 25 years of coaching and consulting with leaders committed to solving their toughest personal, interpersonal and organizational issues.
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is copyrighted by Meredith Kimbell © 2011. All rights reserved. You may reprint any or all of this material if you include the following:
“Leadership Coaching Notes © 2011 Meredith Kimbell, Corporate Adventure, Reston, VA. Used with permission.”