🤸 Self vs. idea promotion, 3 levels of focus, & attitude > technique

Hey — it’s Cristina & Jenni.

This week, we’re:

• reflecting on how to successfully promote our wins and ideas 💬

• learning about the 3 levels of focus - execution, impact, and optics - and how leaders can employ each one 🎯

• pondering the importance of attitude vs. technique ⚖️

Enjoy!

What we’re reflecting on this week:

For many people, one of the most awkward things to do in the workplace is to promote their own wins and ideas.

I’ve had multiple conversations this month alone with friends who are facing this struggle…

Friend A has a big presentation coming up and is worried about pitching his team’s strategy ideas.

Friend B is a shoe-in for a role in a different department but she feels shy about how to approach the internal interview process.

Somehow, it just feels a bit cringe to intentionally insert our own successes or big ideas into a conversation, even when we know it’ll benefit us or the teams we lead (or both!).

Sharing our work - and that of our team members - is fundamental to our success, so it’s an important hurdle to clear.

So how do we overcome this, especially as leaders?

Maybe a slight reframe would help.

Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and Wharton professor, recently shared his take on this topic:

Of course, Adam isn’t saying “never share your wins or accomplishments” or “only share ideas” - it’s more about shifting how we view self promotion and being intentional with how we communicate our (or our team’s) contributions.

I imagine it like a theater: “self promotion” feels like me up on the stage, in the spotlight, showing off. “Idea promotion” feels like me in the auditorium observing my wins or ideas alongside the other audience members.

And in leadership, opting NOT to “idea promote” is not only depriving others of your great ideas and efforts but also depriving you (and your team members) of opportunities.

Whether to strengthen your own internal brand, build a closer relationship with upper management, accelerate your learning and growth, get promoted, or highlight your team’s successes, idea promotion is a critical skill to develop.

Here are 4 easy ways to get started:

1. Keep a running tab of wins and ideas for you and your team members, results you’ve achieved, how you’ve helped others, etc (much easier than wracking your brain once a quarter!)

2. Make it a habit to share frequently (like most things, becomes less intimidating the more you practice it)

3. Call out that you’d like to share more (takes the edge off if you feel it’ll seem out of character to your colleagues)

4. Think about your sharing goals and the appropriate audience (this can vary per share and can include: celebration, recognition, promotion, feedback, learning, advocacy, etc)

To make it feel natural, we’ve also included 5 ways to phrase your sharing in a 1:1 with your leadership team or your boss (or your boss’s boss!):

• Lead with excitement: “I’d love to share something that really excited me this week:” {insert team member win}

• Frame it as a question: “Cool if I share a quick experiment I did with the team and get your take on it?” {insert your actions + a genuine question that’ll help you learn from others’ experience}

• Contextualize with a challenge: “Remember when I was running into obstacles with ___? I have an update for you!” {insert how you overcame that challenge and the result}

• Sprinkle in some humor: “Can I make a quick shameless plug? 😉” {insert recent win that others might want to replicate}

• Announce it: “Great news!” {insert anecdote about what went well}

→ When’s the last time you promoted one of your ideas or accomplishments? What’s a recent win (of yours or your team’s) that you can share this week using the phrasing above?

What we’re learning this week:

• 🎧 Podcast: Better Teams, Better Products – On this episode of The Knowledge Project, Shreyas Doshi (product leader best known for his work at Stripe) drops some wisdom about product management that’s applicable far outside the product realm. Our favorite part focuses on 3 levels of focus - execution, impact, and optics - and how leaders can employ each one.

• 👀 Video: World Leading Psychologist On Why You’re Failing and Why Discomfort Will Unlock Success – Jay Shetty and Adam Grant chat for over an hour about personal growth, comparison, the importance of role models, how to face discomfort, the key to gaining self-confidence, and more. Don’t snooze on it!

• 🎧 Podcast: The Surprising Science of High-Performing Teams – Bestselling author & keynote speaker David Burkus reveals that only 40% of a team’s performance is linked to the skills and knowledge of the team members - the remaining 60% comes from how the team operates. Lots of leadership good gems in this episode 💎

What we’re enjoying this week:

In this clip, a young reporter asks a well-known coach a question he’s never been asked before: “When you coach your team… what’s more important: technique or attitude?”

That’s it for this week — thanks for reading.

See you next Thursday! 🤸‍♀️