Many leaders don’t like being “braggy” and prefer to think that their accomplishments will speak for themselves. But thinking that way can actually derail your leadership career! Watch Bobbie LaPorte’s November 5 “Calling the Game” video for some tips on sharing the good work that you and your team are doing in a thoughtful and collaborative way.
A Leadership Strategy for Claiming Credit Without Stealing the Show
In this platform, I have often covered the importance of self-promotion for today’s leaders. There has never been a more challenging, but also more opportunistic, environment for you to promote the value proposition of you and your team.
This continues to be a concern – and a dilemma – for many of my clients, for many reasons. Lack of confidence, a belief that the “people who matter” already know all the good work you do or being uncomfortable with what feels inappropriate and self-serving.
I get it, but you need to get over it. In this competitive environment, NOT making this a more intentional and consistent practice can be a career derailer.
Think about that person in your leadership staff meeting who takes all the air out of the room every time they speak, boasting about all the things they are working on and never acknowledging the contributions others have made to their accomplishments. You know someone like that, don’t you? It’s so frustrating to experience that again and again and feel powerless to change the narrative.
But you can.
Sharing your successes, increasing your influence and Impact without being “That Person”
Here’s a suggestion to get you started on a new path to sharing your own successes and, as a result, increasing your influence and impact.
Let’s use your leadership staff meeting – the one with your peers and boss – as an example. Almost everyone holds these on some regular basis….as much as they are often dreaded as just a round table of sharing updates.
Here are two actions I’d like you to consider:
- If this is a regular meeting, you likely know the format or what the agenda is. In advance of the meeting, identify at least one item you are going to contribute. Make sure it has value for the participants: how does it support one of the key objectives the team has and is of particular importance to your boss? And be sure to acknowledge your team and anyone else who was part of making this happen.
- If someone has an update that you contributed to and didn’t acknowledge you, use this opportunity to expand their update by repeating a couple of words they shared and adding your own comment or observation.For example: your peer Janet reports out on a project she led, one she specifically asked you to contribute to but never acknowledged you.You can say: “I’d like to add to what Janet said about “x”. My team was asked to contribute to this project, and we found it very interesting in our research that “y”. So, you are adding to the information that was shared, expanding what it means for the team through your own insight.This says:
- We worked on this as well.
- We have an additional perspective that the team should know about.
It may take a little practice, but this is one technique for sharing the good work that you and your team are doing with integrity and in a thoughtful, collaborative way.
Promoting your team and the work you are leading them in is one of the most important responsibilities you have. Don’t expect others to do it for you.
To support you in calling your own game, I am offering my 30-minute online Introduction to Navigating Uncertainty course free to viewers for a limited time. Click on the link at the bottom of this post and sign up now!