You can be the best at your job. You may be the top performer in your company. But you may still not be visible and not get the recognition you deserve.
You can be the best-kept secret – In general, that is not beneficial.
You need to communicate what you do to the organization you work within. Time and time again, I am surprised when department heads and co-workers don’t know the topics my team and I address, when my brand is unknown to them, or, even worse, when it is credited to someone else.
No one besides myself is to blame for that.
Many good career-building articles state that you must develop your brand and not leave it up to someone else. But as crucial as knowing who you are and what you deliver is, you also need to be able to communicate this.
We need to be able to market ourselves, to step out of our shells, and to make ourselves known.
I need to improve my marketing. I should use the channels and venues that yield the most results.
As a typical geek, I assumed back in the days that being good at submitting code to git and writing articles in the Wiki would get me noticed. The sad reality is that it doesn’t work this way, and the number of organizational leaders who read these sources is slim. Your effort will drown among everyone who posts to the same sources.
What venues will make you stand out? Which ways of communication will ensure that leaders experience you as dependable, show your potential, and amplify your brand?
Word of mouth. I have heard that so and so is working on this project and that their business savviness saved us X amount of dollars.
Become an extrovert: Explore the office, engage with people outside your team, strike up conversations, ask them about their projects, and deliver an “elevator pitch” about your projects and efforts.
“An elevator pitch” is something you should work on. Practice and improve—a 30-second blurb about the value you deliver and how you do it. Don’t focus so much on technology and what you work with. You want others to remember you by your ability to drive value.
Every time you have lunch, attend a company gathering, or meet someone new in the hallway, you should take advantage of the opportunity. Even if this sounds like a lot of work, remember that you are at work to work. Relaxing is for home.
Remember, just like you want to tell them about yourself, everyone likes to talk about themselves.
Other paths to spread your brand and showcase your ability to deliver value.
Deliver your stakeholders at given intervals a written summary of your key achievements since the last summary. This report card should provide key artifacts that your stakeholders see as beneficial to share with their stakeholders. Ideally, provide some graphics as a slide or two, which can easily be shared within the organization.
Seek out venues to present your work and deliveries to a larger audience. Present at team and department meetings or invite to meetings you create to share. Distribute the slides you used for the presentation; this will increase your area of impact by hitting everyone in the invite.
Push yourself to be your brand ambassador. Share your message.