f you’re like most people, self-promotion does not come easily. Research on this topic indicates that women are especially hesitant to advocate for themselves. Years of being told to take a back seat and wait to be noticed, we often fail miserably at advocating for ourselves. That being said, we have no issue whatsoever promoting our friends and colleagues! That comes easily. One could conclude from this that we know how to do it, but we shy away from doing so on our own behalf. In fact, we avoid it like the plague, and that has serious consequences to our career advancement. We end up being overlooked and invisible. So why don’t we do it?
What about self-promotion is so difficult? It’s the “self” part; the egocentric nature and seemingly aggressive pushiness that makes us cringe not only when we attempt it for ourselves, but when we observe others bragging in a self-centered manner. When we hear other people promoting themselves this way, we tune them out. It reminds us of the insincere sales person who just wants to make the sale and cares nothing about our wants and needs. The result is that this obvious attempt at self-promotion is not effective. If people don’t listen, the pitch fails.
Many of us have been taught to create elevator pitches to promote ourselves. Personally, I believe these pitches fall flat for the same reason. Elevator pitches are all about us. We feel uncomfortable saying them and we often lose our audience when we deliver our pitch. It seems fake, stylized, too rehearsed, and inauthentic.
So on the one hand we don’t advocate for ourselves because we feel uncomfortable. Yet on the other hand we recognize that self-promotion is necessary to create the visibility and credibility we need to get ahead.
How can we promote ourselves in a way that takes the egocentric grandstanding out of it? We need a new approach.
Read the full article on Substack.com.
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