How can you advance in your career using your quiet strengths as an introvert? Tune in to my radio interview on Work Matters with Nan Russell for free tips on:
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Stephanie Overby makes a good point in her new story in CIO magazine, “Self-Promotion: Learning the Right Way to Brag.” “When someone essentially invites you to brag—‘What’s new? How’s everyone in IT?’” she says, “responding with a laundry list of accomplishments won’t work.” Yes, in fact, that’s one way to get labeled a bore! Instead, she adds, “Prepare for such moments by first compiling a list of accomplishments: recent successes, obstacles overcome, compliments from a client or colleague. Update the list often so it stays current.” And of course, make it timely and relevant to your conversation partners. Overby interviewed me and Peggy Klaus, author of BRAG! The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It, for her story.

If you’re an introvert, your concerns about bragging may be heightened by your natural inclination to avoid the spotlight. You’re more likely to let your accomplishments speak for themselves. But what if your boss and your other stakeholders don’t realize they’re yours? Then you’re leaving yourself vulnerable to someone else taking the credit for them. In that case, all your hard work can go unacknowledged.
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How do you distinguish between a brash boast and a legitimate claim to your hard won wins? I just posed a question on LinkedIn, asking the social networking site’s community at large for examples of shameless, over-the-top bragging.

“My favorite,” replies Czarina Walker, the CEO of InfiniEdge Software in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, “are those people who claim they invented the internet because they made two computers talk, ‘back when you were just a kid.’” (Walker is 33.)
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I conduct a fun exercise during my Self-Promotion for Introverts® workshops at the New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies. The participants are from many walks of life, including computer programmers, doctors, architects, advertising executives, lawyers, bankers, artists, and entrepreneurs.

The point of the exercise is to demonstrate the differences between bragging and effective self-promotion. We brainstorm and the participants say things like: bragging means talking at your conversation partner, carrying on a monologue about yourself, and even namedropping for good measure. Boo hiss. We all agree that bragging—both performing the nasty and being on the receiving end of it—is distasteful.
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Self-promotion for librarians? Yes, it’s essential. Now more than ever, with funds for local libraries drying up and books going the way of “book readers”—as in devices—librarians must brave the evolving world of Library 2.0.

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Liz Lynch and I agree. You don’t need to brag to promote yourself. In fact, it’s unbecoming. After all, do you like it when someone brags to you?
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Check out the seven Self-Promotion for Introverts® tips I shared on a TV interview on ABC News Now this morning.

Here’s a summary of the story, titled “Getting the Job: How Introverts Can Compete in an Extrovert Market”:

1. Rest up, prepare and practice.
2. Target your message.
3. Speak with confidence.

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I just had a delightful hat on Radio WD with Jane Chesnutt, editor-in-chief of Woman’s Day magazine, about the ins and outs of being an introvert in the workplace. We discussed promoting yourself without bragging, interviewing for jobs, asking for a raise, and developing an “onstage” personality for introverts. And, hey, the magazine’s “live well every day” motto can remind us to take impeccable care of ourselves, celebrate our quiet strengths, and then to forge ahead…inward, outward, and onward!