Do you shudder when people talk about "personal branding" at work? Do you think that "doing good work is enough" to be noticed? Are you skeptical or judgemental of the people in meetings who always speak up? If you've answered yes to any of these questions, there is a strong likelihood you are an introvert.
To introverts, sticking pins in your eyes seems a preferable alternative to "self-promotion" or "personal branding". The thing is: being noticed is a necessary precondition for progress, meaning for the sake of your career, we need to find a way through this resistance. (BTW I identify as an extroverted introvert!).
What does it mean to self promote?
I guess it's all about being noticed. You want to be noticed by your leadership. You want to get picked to work on interesting projects that align with your interests and passions. You want to be praised and recognised when you do good work. You want people to amplify your voice, and ultimately talk about you in rooms that you're not in.
Introverts vs extroverts at work
Most companies are geared towards extroverts, in that large meetings are common, as is praise for communicating very visibly and en masse, like say hosting a meeting, or being super active on messaging channels. Introverts on the other hand, tend to prefer 1-1 communication over large groups and focus on deep work, disliking constant interruptions. What does that mean? It's harder to excel in the corporate world as an introvert. To succeed you have to overwrite some of your natural personality tendencies to get noticed at work.
Can you opt out of self promotion as an introvert?
Honestly I think the answer is no. Especially if you work in a large corporation as you will just become lost among the masses. It's not enough to "let your work speak for itself"; these spaces are simply too big, and there are too many others shouting about their achievements.
1. Authenticity > Personal Branding
There isn't just one way around personal branding. Make it authentic and it won't feel like sticking pins in your eyes either. So what does authentic self promotion look like? It could be you talking about your super powers and who/what does that add value to. For example, if culture is important to you, talk about the culture initiative you're involved with, and feedback you've got on the impact of that. When you talk about things that matter to you, its easier to talk full stop. The key for introverts: stop putting your names to projects you don't really care about, just in the name of personal branding. Do interesting things that you actually want to talk about.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
2. Activate your visibility > Self promotion
Introverts often identify self promotion as a negative, and resent people that it comes naturally to, as to them it can seem contrived and cynical. But it doesn't have to be. I figured out a way through self promotion when I started thinking about "activating my visibility". Visibility mattered to me as ambition and recognition are important values that motivate me. When I started channeling visibility for motivation, rather than feeling like something I had to do for the sake of others' perceptions of me, it helped. I guess for an introvert, it can help to make it about yourself, and not others, as you likely don't get energy from others.
3. Build yourself a hype squad
Credit to Bozoma Saint John, the current CMO at Netflix for this great idea. Get together with 2-3 colleagues and set up a hype squad. Share wins, talk about each other when the other person isn't in the room, repost their LinkedIn posts, concur with them in meetings. This is all about amplification and attribution: when you're reinforcing each others voices, you're helping lift each person's reputation within your organisation.
4. Plan & Prepare
You can't leave your voice to chance if you're an introvert as its likely in certain situations you won't have the desire or confidence to use it. Being in a large group of people is the quickest and easiest way for my voice to get drowned out. So I read the agenda ahead of time, thinking though some observations or questions I can ask when that comes up in the meeting, rather than leaving my thoughts to chance. I also keep a communications calendar where I intentionally plot out my internal and external visibility actions each week. This could be sharing on a Slack channel, or a post on LinkedIn. Also relating it back to the authenticity point, it means you can lean in and talk about things that matter to you and that makes it so much easier to speak up. The scheduling will help you manage your energy, and establish self promotion as part of an established cadence, rather than something left to chance. At your company, what 4 words do you want to be known for? For example my 4 right now are; leadership, creativity, collaboration and joy. Use this focus to figure out the spaces and conversations you need to engage in to activate your visibility around these words.
5. Stretch your comfort zone
We've already established that to get ahead in the corporate world, personal branding and self promotion is a necessary evil. So you're going to have to stretch that comfort zone. Push yourself to talk in the meeting. Or knowledge share with your peers. Focus on why you're doing it, and worry less about people's perceptions of you over it. Don't compare. Some people are master tacticians of self promotion: you don't have to be them, you do you. But that will mean some self promotion so people know who your you is.
6. Be humble in your actions, not about your achievements
One thing to need to consider is why you find it so difficult to speak about yourself and your achievements? Why can't you brag about yourself?
Some of it is social conditioning as in Ireland we're taught to never "get above our station". Sharing your achievements is a source of pride and you do not need to feel shamed or embarrassed to talk about the wonderful things you do. The world needs to hear from you about what we can be doing to make our leadership, teams, companies, the world a better place!
This is a journey I am still on, but I hope this helps some of my fellow introverts out there navigate self promotion and personal branding in their organisations. Why? I want the world to see your potential, and help you unlock it to create real, meaningful impact.
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