Shout about yourself to succeed

Above: Self promotion is a skill you can learn to help further your career.

Life is ironic – logically you would think that self-promotion would be easy because you know the subject better than anyone else, but as you know, life isn’t always logical! So why is it that people struggle in this area? As a country we are a modest nation, very self-effacing. People who shout about their successes and achievements are frowned upon and thought to be arrogant and even selfish. Not so in America – over there it is a natural part of being American to sing your own praises and they have a confidence in self-promotion that most Brits just don’t possess.

If you don’t sing your own praises, who else will? In this ever changing world, taking responsibility for yourself in every way is vital – your career progression, future pension, health and happiness.

Men tend to be better at self-promotion than women. Often people are very talented, but their talents are not realised because they just don’t know how to promote themselves or they stop themselves because of various fears. 

What are the causes of poor self-promotion? 

There are a number of causes of poor self-promotion:

• Belief that it is ‘boasting’ to sing your own praises;
• Fear of success, failure or rejection;
• Not knowing how to go about it;
• Overwhelm – where to start;
• Not making time for it or having a clear goal;
• Mistaken belief that success will happen naturally;
• Unclear about who you need to promote yourself to;
• Lack of self awareness about what makes you great/different as an individual;
• Lack of confidence in your own ability;
• British culture of understating yourself;
• Feeling uncomfortable about marketing – I just want to do my job.

How skilled are you at self-promotion? What holds you back? What would be the first step to improve how you promote yourself/your business?

10 tips to help promote yourself

Here’s some simple tips to help you promote yourself:

1. Identify three key supporters to your success and speak with them regularly for tips and encouragement;
2. Set clear goals and develop a strategy and step by step plan;
3. Recall a memory where you felt very upbeat and positive and change how you feel;
4. Plan time in your diary regularly for self-promotion;
5. Visualise success;
6. Get a coach or mentor;
7. Identify actual/perceived blocks to progress and create strategies to get around them;
8. Think about who you want to influence - focus on what’s in it for them not what’s in it for you;
9. Identify your individual motivation to invest in self-promotion, for example, getting more clients would enable you to help more people;
10. Create a case with evidence to justify that pay rise you deserve.

 For more information visit www.energisingconnector.co.uk or email Rachel at rachel@energisingconnector.co.uk