If You Don’t Tell Them, Who Will?

Do you toot your own horn? Maybe you should.

We’re taught early in life to not brag or boast about ourselves. And in general, that is excellent advice. Tootin’ our own horn – telling folks about our accomplishments – is bragging, no doubt about it. It turns others off and makes us look self-serving.

Sometimes though, it is entirely appropriate. In the work environment, it is not only appropriate, but necessary. As the old saying goes, “If you don’t tell them, who will?”

Why toot your own horn?

Let’s start by defining today’s workplace. It’s different from the industrial environment where work was clearly measured by output and time. In today’s knowledge and service environment, much work goes unobserved. We work independently, and chances are the only time our boss hears anything about us is when we mess up.

And we will mess up – that’s how we learn. But it becomes only one half of the equation. Who is going to balance the equation with all of the great stuff accomplished?

That’s where tootin’ your own horn comes in.

Let’s be very clear. This is not about bragging. Bragging is self-serving without a greater purpose.

I’m talking about qualitative data, the kind that contributes to an overall awareness of what is being worked on, how the work is progressing, and the results that have been achieved. It isn’t about finding superlatives to describe how great you did. Instead it is about being factual and adding to the knowledge and awareness of those in decision-making roles, e.g., your boss or other decision-makers.

3 steps to proper tootin’

There are three important steps in tootin’ your own horn. They can be boiled down to:

Tell ‘em what you’re going to do
Do it
Tell ‘em what you did.

And do it all factually and clearly linked to a business result.

1. Tell ‘em — Those of us in professional positions make decisions every day about what we will work on. Sure, there are goals and objectives, but we spend time (probably a lot of time) on setting the stage for goal accomplishment. That could be reinventing a streamlined process, building a relationship across business unit lines, talking to employees about what they need to succeed.

This is important work, but no one may know what really went into achieving that goal unless you tell them. I don’t mean a formal presentation. It can be as simple as this:

My department and the [X] department are having a small conflict over [X] process. I don’t want you to do anything, I just wanted to let you know that I am working with the department manager to resolve. I’ll keep you posted.

This does three things. First, it brings the topic into awareness, so that your boss can provide any additional information you might need to resolve the issue. Second, it demonstrates that you are a problem solver, and that you value business relationships.

Additionally, it forces you to clearly understand and articulate the work to be done, as well as the expected result.

2. Do it — Execute on your plan, whatever it might be.

3. Tell ‘em what you did — Circle back and let your boss know that you have resolved the situation you spoke with her about. Your result may be a better working relationship, a collaboration that resulted in a better process, or an improvement you made to your team’s process that they requested, and how it will improve productivity.

The point here is that, any of these things are almost routine and rarely rise to visibility. That said, they are also a large part of the work you do.

If you don’t highlight your work, it will probably go unnoticed. That’s probably not something you should leave to chance. Being factual and clear that your update is simply FYI will go a long way toward creating the aura of your professional work ethic.

Thanks to my business partner for this lesson.

This originally appeared on Carol Anderson’s blog @the intersection of learning & performance.