It is quite common for candidates to sign up for job interview training only once the interview has already been scheduled. But at such short notice, the scope for optimisation is very limited. The same applies to self-marketing on the job: many people think too short-term, as the following example illustrates.
My client – let’s call him René – was a highly entrepreneurial employee who championed his employer’s interests with great commitment. He was intrinsically motivated, continuously developed his area of responsibility, and went well beyond the duties set out in his official job description.
During the personal and professional assessment I practised storytelling with him. He told his stories almost exclusively in the «we»-form (see also my article: «Forget the WE in Self-Marketing»), which meant his achievements remained in the background.
Self-awareness comes before self-marketing
It was obvious: he hardly recognised his achievements and his strongest assets. He also resisted my insistence that he himself had been the driving force behind the progress in his department. He shied away from claiming this credit for himself and repeatedly stressed that he had not achieved it alone – after all, none of the improvements would have been possible without his team.
That is certainly true. But it also remains the achievement of Steve Jobs to have brought the iPhone into the world, even though thousands of employees made valuable contributions without which this success would never have been possible.
It was to René’s credit that he valued the performance of his staff. But that he should have done the same with his own performance became apparent a few weeks later. In the course of our further collaboration, he told me he was negotiating a promotion with his superiors, which they refused. As we had practised, he highlighted his achievements by telling stories – without success.
Internal positioning is an investment
His superiors assessed his performance differently. They were unable to see the difficulties he had had to overcome in his initiatives – just as I explained in my article «Why Success Does Not Speak for Itself».
Eventually, René realised that his superiors had formed their view of him precisely on the basis of how he had long downplayed his own achievements. In the short timeframe of promotion talks, it was virtually impossible to change their perception. Their opinion was well established – shaped by the impressions of a long working relationship. Once people have formed an opinion, it is hard to move them away from it. René would have needed to build his reputation within the company strategically over time.
Understand self-marketing as a long-term investment and turn it into a consistent habit. Otherwise, it is like waiting until June to get your body into shape for the bathing season. Anyone who has tried it knows exactly what I mean.