Sell Yourself to the Company, Again and Again

For whom do you work?

No, not the company, foundation or firm. The question is whether you are another faceless member of the team, or are in business for yourself--a Me Inc. Although many of us work in concert with others, we are increasingly expected to trumpet our own accomplishments. In today’s workplace, silence is not golden--it could actually dull chances to advance.

Thus, in an environment that breeds competition and encourages and values the entrepreneurial spirit, the old notion of toiling simply for the good of the company--and getting rewarded for it--may be considered antiquated.

But how “Zen” is it to promote yourself, distinguishing your self from the boundless self?

Zen proponents teach that from selfishness spring dissatisfaction and distress. However, some believe that through full self-expression we find freedom from destructive egotistical habits. “You may resent the need to constantly market yourself,” writes Barbara Moses in “Career Intelligence: 12 New Rules for Work and Life Success” (Berrett-Koehler, 1998). “But the reality is that if you fail to market yourself, you are much more likely to end up” among the faceless, indistinguishable workers in the dreaded resource pool.

The truth is, you’ve had to sell yourself before: asking someone out on a date, applying to college, interviewing for a job. “Effectively, people need to present themselves as a desirable product--to turn themselves into marketable commodities,” Moses writes. And, she suggests, consider everyone you work for a client rather than a boss. For whether we like it or not, the workplace has changed, according to Moses. If you stop resisting the fact you have to market yourself, you can concentrate on ways of integrating that into your work style.

First, it may help to embrace a Zen belief that each of us is a masterpiece, a product of individual past actions.

But how do you bring yourself to do something that everything inside you violently rejects? You may think, “Hey, by now, they know me, my work and dedication on the job. Why do I need to tell the higher-ups about what I’ve done?”

One way to promote yourself while maintaining focus on the greater good of the company is to approach self-promotion with authenticity, says Jean Lipman-Blumen, a professor of organizational psychology and public policy at Claremont Graduate University’s Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management.

This authenticity should be more than sincerity, she says, more of a real dedication to the organization. She suggests having an “institutional rather than personal perspective.” In other words, the self can benefit by focusing on the many.

And understanding that your successes are essentially your company’s successes may ease some anxiety about telling others about them, says Carl B. Watson, an assistant vice president for performance development at Chase Manhattan Bank.

Besides, “If you go in thinking ‘I need to shout my success from the mountaintops,’ it’s going to seem arrogant,” Watson says. That’s why it’s important to establish meaningful connections with colleagues and superiors. And, Lipman-Blumen and Watson say, communication is key in this pursuit.

“You can do things that people don’t agree with if you don’t leave your motives in doubt,” Lipman-Blumen says, subscribing to the Western cultural perspective that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

While these ideas are well and good, some folks just can’t seem to get their P.R. machine out of neutral. Aside from modesty, such factors as culture, upbringing, gender and age can reduce comfort with self-marketing and encourage a more Eastern cultural perspective--that the nail that sticks out gets hammered in. But reliance on the belief that actions speak louder than words doesn’t always communicate enough at work.

“The era of the ‘safe’ career, where you could eventually hope to reach a point where you could relax and rest on your laurels, basking in past accomplishments, is gone forever,” Moses writes. “You will constantly need to prove yourself, to sell yourself as the most worthy and capable of doing the work. Work becomes an endless audition, in which you are only as good as what you did yesterday at 5 o’clock.”

One way to let supervisors see you as a shining light and not a mere flicker is through intellectual generosity, such as sharing ideas, Lipman-Blumen says. Locking ideas away in the file drawer of your mind--and guarding them jealously with a proprietary interest--can impede your progress. “If you have one good idea, you’ll have a thousand more,” Lipman-Blumen says, assuring that giving one or two to the group won’t bankrupt your stock of good ideas.

Before undertaking this, there is a key to recognizing what the best approach is for you: Know thyself.

Watson, who is completing a doctorate in organizational psychology at the University of Michigan, says self-awareness and honesty are essential.

And before you can make others see your value within an organization, you must first identify your strengths and weaknesses, contributions and how you fit into the scheme of things. Here is where the seeming conflict between Zen and self-promotion is resolved.

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Self-Marketing Tips:

* Authenticity: Be dedicated, not just sincere. Try to adopt an “institutional rather than personal perspective,” says Jean Lipman-Blumen, a professor of organizational behavior at Claremont Graduate University.

* Initiative: Volunteer for high-visibility tasks, which will bring you to the attention of higher-ups.

* Leadership: Even if you aren’t in a leadership role, be willing to take on extra work. Power flows to people who take on extra work, Lipman-Blumen says.

* Communication: If you express yourself well, your motives should be clear to others. Develop good interpersonal skills, such as the ability to build rapport.

* Relationships: Establish and maintain relationships with higher-ups and actively manage these relationships by following up, not leaving them to chance. “When [superiors] give you an opportunity to spend time [with them], take them up on it,” says Carl B. Watson, an assistant vice president for performance development at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York.

* Self-knowledge: Be your best advocate and most honest critic. Familiarize yourself with your strengths and weaknesses. Develop a one-minute description of what you do and what your role is within your organization, Watson suggests.

* Work role: “You want to be a team player, not just seem like one,” Watson says.