Time to Toot Your Own Horn: Gaining Visibility and Advancing Your Career

By Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

How do you promote yourself? Many women may feel uncomfortable speaking about their accomplishments and don’t take advantage of simple procedures that can help advance their careers. But it’s something that can be critical to your career development. This week, The Glass Hammer talked to an array of experts to understand why women might need to improve their self-promotion skills, how to be better at it and what it takes to gain visibility in the workplace.

Walking the Fine Line

Lauren Rikleen, Executive-in-Residence at the Center for Work and Family at Boston College believes women walk a fine line.

“Women walk a fine line between being told that they need to promote themselves better,” said Rikleen. “On the other hand, women are sometimes seen in a negative light for promoting themselves too much.”

Rikleen believes that we should all reframe how we view self-promotion and look at it as something positive.

“I frequently hear about firm-wide emails that males will send around about their male colleagues’ accomplishments but I don’t see enough women do this,” she said.

To change the way self-promotion is viewed, Rikleen recommends helping other women out.

“One of things I tell women is that when something good happens in their career, ask a colleague or partner in the firm to spread the word,” she said. “This is important to do likewise when someone else has good news to share.”

Getting Comfortable With Confidence

Rikleen believes one of the reasons women don’t self promote as much as men is because they aren’t as comfortable with it.

“Women are almost socialized against self promotion,” she explained. “We hear about women being conceited or bragging but these are negative messages that we need to reverse.”

Robin Ross, Managing Director of Interest Rate Products at the CME Group, also believes that women might find it hard to talk about their accomplishments.

“It doesn’t come naturally to us. Most women I know believe that actions speak louder than words,” she said. “However, the people that need to know aren’t always informed about our accomplishments.”

Ross said that it is incumbent for all managers to coach the importance of communicating up.

“I point out in reviews that it is successful to communicate up. While networking with other women or during time with your mentor, speak about your accomplishments and get comfortable doing it,” she said.

Gaining Visibility and Getting Recognized

Cynthia Zeltwanger is the founder and CEO of C Zelt Enterprises. She believes that women will not be successful if self-promotion is the only goal.

“Most people who set out to self promote might fail because that is not the end goal,” she said. “Women should focus on their accomplishments and skills and then think about how to promote those skills.”

One suggestion Zeltwanger has is to engage in activities that people are interested in and gain visibility that way.

“What is it that you want people to know about?” she asked. “From there it is much easier to find out what people are interested in and then talk about what you have done.”

She also recommended getting on projects with cross-functional teams so other people can see your work.

“You have to make sure people outside of your direct managers know your skill set,” she said. “Make sure your accomplishments are recognized.”

While self-promotion may be a daunting task for some women, it is crucial for career advancement. The experts point out that helping other women out, utilizing your mentors and networks, and engaging in activities that people are interested in will help you succeed in gaining visibility. The most important factor to keep in mind, however, is to be proactive.

“People that put their hand up to get involved with new projects gain visibility,” said Zeltwanger. “You can’t wait to be recognized. You have to be proactive, volunteer and put yourself out there.”