Are you uncomfortable talking about your successes? A lot of people are, probably because most of us have been taught not to brag. The other reasonfor the discomfort that I hear often is that we frequently do things as part of a team rather than through solo efforts.
I certainly won’t tell you either of those is wrong. And nobody likes a braggart, right?
But that said, it is important to be able to name your accomplishments and strengths in a work setting. We most often think of this as part of an interview but it can also play a key role when you’re asking for a raise or a promotion.
So how the heck do you get started?
I encourage the people I work with to start getting into the habit of writing down their successes as they have them. Start small if you can’t think of anything big. A lot of this is just training your brain to remember these things as well as it likes to remember our embarrassing moments and failures. So if you need to, start with tiny things like remembering to call your sister or eating that apple you packed as a snack. Keep these in a particular place—I like a notebook, but a file on your phone works, too. And build on these as you go. Sometimes your accomplishments will be things like not reacting to the annoying buy in the breakroom, and sometimes they will be things like getting your project done on time and under budget. But be sure to list enough detail that you’ll remember what you’re talking about even years down the road. That primes you to discuss these success stories to someone else.
When it comes time to trot these out, do a little prep work. If you’re getting ready for an interview, think about which stories answer common interview questions like your greatest strength or times you worked as part of a team. For a raise or promotion, weave your stories in so you can show what a benefit to the company or organization you are. And remember, the stories you tell should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and they should really focus on “I” language: “I completed A, B, and C components of the project….” You can acknowledge the team, of course, but then you pull out the pieces that were your responsibility and speak to those in greater detail.
If you’re still struggling to speak to your accomplishments, try this one miraculous little phrase: “I’ve been told that….” This is a lovely little combination of words that lets you speak to what you’re good at, but it also lets you avoid bragging. After all, you’re just sharing feedback that you’ve gotten from other people!
And if you need to, practice talking about these points with someone you trust. You may never learn to love talking about yourself this way, but it will get easier the more you do it. And after all, you deserve to have your accomplishments noted!
