With my book coming out next month, I am realizing that I often have a hard time promoting myself. This is something that many women struggle with so today’s article is all about why you need to promote yourself at work.

Most women are more comfortable being humble and not attracting attention. When I was growing up my dad would brag about the things I was doing to other people and I would get so embarrassed (and I still sometimes do)!

One of the most common mistakes that women make (and I have too!) is believing that other will people know how awesome they are without them having to say anything about it. They are working away in their cubicle doing GREAT work, but because they aren’t out there promoting themselves, their leadership doesn’t see all the great stuff that they are doing!

Women have often been raised NOT to self-promote, whereas men are raised to promote themselves and compete with each other. Men are often naturals at promoting themselves to others and it is fairly common for them to promote themselves in a group of men.

Real Life Example of Promoting Yourself: 

One day I received two emails at work. One was from a man on my team and one was from a woman. I had congratulated the woman on an award her team had just received.

In response to my email, she said “Oh, that award wasn’t for me. I wasn’t even here when that award was written up.” She missed her chance to say, “Thanks! Yes, I have been working my butt off here since I started and I am doing a great job!” She made herself look less than the awesome and hard working person that I know she is with that email.

On the other hand that day, the email I received from the man said, “Look at this awesome thing that I was able to complete!” He had finally completed something that he had not been able to do for the past year. He sent that email to our entire team to brag about his accomplishment.

I congratulated him and said, “Wow, that is awesome! Good for you!” In my eyes, unfortunately, the man scored some points that day and the woman lost some points for not promoting herself.

How to Promote Yourself: 

Constantly build up your reputation by sharing what you are working on to build respect for you and your work. If you have a great thing that you know you did, just say it! Don’t wait for someone to call on you or for someone else to discover it.

Get in the habit of sharing emails about good work or presenting good news in team meetings. Look for ways to expand your skills and knowledge and then don’t be afraid to tell the team what you are learning and working on.

Would love to hear how these tips helped you promote yourself more. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!