Professional Development – Marketing Yourself In Your Workplace

In this era of uncertainty, job security is a thing of the past for most of us.  Thus, we need to perpetually market ourselves within our companies and through our network.  I’m learning to be more active on LinkedIn – something I joined a long time ago, but mostly ignored until quite recently.

Another workshop in which I was involved recently was Marketing Yourself.  We offered the workshop to a group of people who were job-seekers and taught them about personal branding, positioning, and target marketing.  It was astonishing to learn that many people had never realized that job hunting was actually service (not product) marketing.  As I’ve said so many times before – marketing services (yourself) is far more difficult than marketing a product.

Services are intangible.  They require either good references and testimonials or free samples.  The potential buyer (employer) needs some form of proof that you do indeed deliver the quality and quantity of services you purport to deliver.

One of the LinkedIn groups on consulting has a recurring question asking if we think a free sample is a good thing to do or something we ought never do.  Most people report that a free sample is a bad thing to do – that you should never give anything away.  I disagree strongly.  In my many years of consulting and public speaking I’ve learned that once people actually experience what I do and how I do it they are much more likely to hire me.  They learn quickly that I deliver what I promise and I deliver in my own unique and effective style.

During our workshop we helped attendees go beyond their canned (and usually ineffective) elevator speech in favor of a sentence or two designed to talk about the benefits to their potential employer.  I, role playing with them as the hiring manager, kept asking:  “What’s in it for me?”   Ultimately that is what you have to prove to the person contemplating hiring you.

My advice:  Learn how to market yourself internally.  What are your accomplishments?  How can you make yourself more visible in a positive manner?   Can you take risks?  Lead meetings?  Stretch yourself and take on more responsibilities?  Brand yourself in a manner to make yourself memorable.

Negotiation Strategies for Women

Last week a colleague and I conducted a workshop for women on negotiation.  Surprisingly, we discovered that many of the issues that prevented women from getting ahead in the fifties still exist today.  

Women told us: We have to be “good girls”.  We are not allowed to ask, but have to hope that those we love guess (esp) what we want and give it to us.  Asking makes us appear greedy and selfish.  We have to be humble.

Many of the women believed (erroneously) that getting a promotion or salary increase would be offered to them if they did a good job on the additional assignments given them.  This was in contrast to what most men do, which is negotiate for the raise and promotion because they are given the additional assignment, and before they even start to complete it.

The feedback from this two hour workshop was incredible.  Many women came to tell us how much they got out of learning they were not alone in their beliefs.  Many reported the importance of hearing our suggestions for taking some risks and asking for what they wanted and needed.  They’ve asked us for more follow up and some role-playing practice.

The women who attended this workshop were all professionals, managers, executives.  Yet, they had the same fears and resistance to assertiveness that their counter-part females just entering the workforce report.

Women are still being brainwashed.   This is especially true for women born and raised in other countries.

So, if you want the women in your organization to take more professional risks and reach up for more – giving you, their employer more for your money – than you might want to consider offering assertiveness training and negotiation strategies for the women in your organization.  (Yes, a shameless plug for you to bring me in to conduct these workshops.)