If you’re feeling small in your corporate career, like you should be leading bigger initiatives with higher visibility and have more respect from company leaders—I’ve been there, too. And so have most of my clients.
As a Fortune 100 leadership and career strategist for the past 15 years, one of the biggest mistakes I see high performers making is leaving it up to their boss to promote their successes up the leadership chain. Too often, I’ve seen outstanding employees work hard all year to achieve big wins and stretch goals set by their manager, only to be rewarded with a dismal 4% annual pay raise.
GET PROMOTED
It’s taking more than impressive results these days to move up the career ladder. You also need a strong reputation with company leaders who can hire you, promote you or influence others to hire or promote you.
In my recent Forbes article, I shared three ways I’m helping my corporate clients land promotions by building their executive presence inside a company. But what about building your reputation outside the company?
Did you know that creating and cultivating a powerful public image can highly influence your reputation and career path inside a company? Here are three strategies to help you.
Get published.
Nothing builds your reputation faster inside a company than publishing an article, white paper or nonfiction book. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a leader, manager or individual contributor, your professional experiences, training, education, technical skills and leadership style can all give you a unique perspective.
What if your CEO asked you for three ideas to help another team be smarter, faster or more efficient? Or your biggest customer asked you for three recommendations to help their company get better results? What are your areas of expertise, experiences and lessons learned that could potentially help others?
Earlier in my career, I was leading IT technical projects inside a Fortune 100 company when I wrote my first book, “Career Smart – 5 steps to a powerful personal brand.” Within one year, I spoke at three internal conferences and landed a leadership role in HR, better suited to my passion, leading a global team to develop our company’s 8,000 worldwide managers. Great leaders want outstanding employees who are viewed as experts in their field, and many will guide you (or at least respect you for your ambition) to get published. Perhaps they can collaborate or provide input.
Always follow your company’s policies and approval channels. Talk to your manager and manager’s boss before publishing anything. Never include IP information. Try publishing an article on LinkedIn. Include the article link in your monthly report to your manager, your manager’s boss and other internal stakeholders.
Step on stage.
Becoming a conference speaker provided the single biggest boost to my corporate career, over anything else. Several years ago, I was terrified when my boss asked me to fill in for him to speak at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF), a global event attended by 5,000 developers, media analysts and top industry business executives from all over the world. But that presentation opened the door to leading one of the highest-profile IT projects in the company, and that big win gave me a 22% annual raise.
Sometimes, company leaders need to physically see you as a leader before they reward you with leadership opportunities. If the idea of speaking makes you hyperventilate, then what about joining a panel or moderating a session? Set up a “call for speakers” Google alert to learn about upcoming conferences. Work with your manager and your manager’s boss for permission, input and funding. If they can’t fund you, consider paying for it yourself. Stepping into a higher role may require you to invest in yourself. Do it. Let your leadership chain see you as a leader.
Join a board of directors.
Prove to your company executives that you’re already a leader by joining a board of directors for an industry, profession, education, community or nonprofit affiliation. Investing two to three hours each month on a board of directors can have huge payoffs in your career.
One of my clients successfully re-branded her technical role to marketing partly due to joining the American Marketing Association’s local chapter’s board of directors, performing high-quality work and then getting a recommendation from a senior-level board member. Many boards of directors want outstanding professionals to help them elevate their brand, membership, finance, business operations and fundraising efforts. In exchange for your time and providing high-quality work, you can expand your portfolio and list of accomplishments, add “board of directors” to your title and prove to your company executives that you are a leader.
Maybe you’re feeling like you need to be “more” to try these strategies. Earlier in my career in that Fortune 100 company, I felt that way, too. I felt like I needed to be smarter, bigger and more accomplished to step into a public arena and share my expertise. But it took stepping out publicly and creating my own space as a leader to be seen as a leader by company executives—which in turn, helped me get the leadership opportunities I’d been craving.
You are enough. Meet yourself where you are and raise your hand to share your expertise, recommendations and lessons learned. You may get turned down. You may fail. You may shake and tremble at first, and it will probably take some time, but your career is in your hands. Your reputation is in your hands. Own them. Build them. Drive them.
What do you need to step out and share your expertise? Approval? Input? Validation? Whatever it is, get it. I’ve seen so many success stories from my clients and my own experience that I fully believe that when you step out authentically, humbly and with the intention to help others, you can step into the leadership role you’re meant to have in this world.
