Don't Fly Under the Radar
Women tend to wait to be noticed for promotion. They keep their head down and continue to work long hours in the hopes that management recognizes their dedication and bestows the gift of advancement. Although one would think that doing ‘good work’ is enough to result in promotion, that is not usually the case. While you are quietly waiting and hoping that your work will speak for itself, there are many forces at play that may mean you are overlooked. You and your accomplishments fly under the radar.
Your Voice is Your Marketing Tool
A good way to go from obscurity to greater prominence in your career advancement goals is to use your voice. Doing it the right way will help to facilitate the transition from a passenger to the driver of your career. Of course, it’s a given that every day you must perform and be a star in your field (if you don’t produce, promotion is infinitely harder). However, you must also use your voice to correctly market what you do. For example, instead of simply sharing a laundry list of tasks that highlight a project you are working on or downplaying your accomplishments, communicate your actions and projects relative to how they positively affect revenue, sales, or a customer.
Try These Three Steps When You Are Asked the Following Question:
What are you working on?
1. State what you are doing and relate it to a goal of the company:
I am pulling data in support of the company’s overall goal to help retain customers
2. Identify what department or departments it will help:
The data will be compiled into a comprehensive report that will be used by the operations team to understand better what this group is concerned about before they contact them.
3. Be sure to reference how it hard it is, while highlighting how your skills and knowledge will help you get it done:
This project involves aggregating data from a multitude of sources. Although it is time-consuming, I’m very knowledgeable in this area, therefore and I am confident to meet the identified deadline.
08/10/2018
Catherine Valyi, Co-founder Women With Dynamic Purpose