SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CAREERS / THE PATCHWORK OFFICE : Stepping Into the Spotlight to Toot Your Own Horn

“I shouldn’t tell people I’m happy when I do a great job because they’ll think I’m bragging--right? The boss should just know when I’m working like a dog--right? Others will feel put down if I share my successes--right?”

Wrong on all counts. Tooting your own horn is not only acceptable, it’s necessary in today’s world of downsizing and re-engineering. But take heart. You don’t have to sound like a carnival barker to get the message across that you do good work. Just be a good marketer, with yourself as the product. That means getting over a distaste for stepping into the spotlight, says Doe Lang, author of “The Secrets of Charisma.”

You need to see tooting your own horn for what it really is: a subtle, inoffensive expression of your pleasure at doing a job well, says Muriel Solomon in “Getting Praised, Raised and Recognized.”

But you must be careful not to go overboard: Your reputation will suffer if you’re seen as too self-promotional. To keep from crossing that fine line, Lang suggests, “position your contributions as offshoots of pleasure and service to others.” This will help you “detoxify the ego-narcissistic element. Look at this not as bragging, but as ‘positive perception management,’ ” Lang says.

If you increase your visibility, you’ll be seen as more of a major contributor and will have an easier time asking for raises and promotions. And in this time of layoffs, it’s dangerous to remain in the shadows. You may think you’re protecting yourself by staying invisible, but managers who don’t know you can’t make a case for keeping you when they have to cut staff.

Rosanne Foust learned to speak up and share her accomplishments when she had a boss who was a glory hog. “It made me work to get over being shy,” says Foust, vice president of global operations for the Alsace Development Agency in Los Angeles, which arranges for joint ventures and investment in the Alsace region of France.

“Now I position my accomplishments in the context of being learning experiences and tell what I’ve learned to my boss.” She’s also careful to share credit. “I use terms like, we , us , our , instead of making it sound like I did something all alone.”

You can start testing the waters by hanging a “glory board” in your office and tacking up congratulatory notes, certificates and photos of you and your group celebrating a successful project. If you make it look attractive, visitors are bound to notice and ask what those celebrations are all about.

Third-party praise is always effective, says Dianna Booher, author of “Communicate With Confidence.” You and a trusted colleague can arrange ahead of time to serve as each other’s public relations emissary at a business lunch or industry function, introducing one another with accolades you might feel uncomfortable saying about yourself.

When partners and investors give her praise, Foust doesn’t hesitate to ask them to put it in writing.

“I even did that with a $50-million project with a Fortune 500 company that ended up going to another region” after her contact told her the decision was made in spite of the impressive work she had done, she says.

Never underestimate the power of the press. Get to know the editor of the company newsletter and feed him or her stories about successes in your department. When articles appear, send them to customers and colleagues.

Speaking up about your good work may take some courage at first, and that calls for strategy, says Nancy Coleman of Palos Verdes, who runs three exercise studios in the greater Los Angeles area. She suggests tooting your own horn with a friend first, “someone you don’t have to underplay your accomplishments with.” In fact, she and another female business owner meet regularly to tell each other how much money they made that week.

How about planning for those brief encounters with key people on the elevator and in the coffee room? To get over the fear of speaking up, try reviewing the recent missed opportunities you’ve had. Like the day you were glowing because of a compliment you received from a customer but, when you bumped into the president of the company on the elevator, mumbled something about the weather or the baseball strike.

“Ask yourself, ‘If I had handled this with courage, what would I have said differently?’ ” says Coleman.

This will help change the automatic scripts you have in your mind, she says, and next time you’ll feel better about volunteering your pleasure at being recognized for your good work.

Another technique to help you speak up is to take a class in negotiating to learn how to better convey your ideas, says Kathy Aaronson, executive director of the Sales Athlete, a career counseling and guidance service in Beverly Hills.

“We may have heard the biblical philosophy that the meek shall inherit the Earth, but that way of thinking is a personality fault in business today,” she says. “If you’re too laid-back, you get laid off.”