How to communicate success in an authentic way

Do you struggle with shouting about your successes? Does the thought of “profiling” yourself within a business make you cringe?

Communicating big wins on my account used to be one of the aspects of the Account Management role that I disliked the most.  I was brought up by my parents to not brag or boast about my achievements and therefore I cringed at the thought of announcing strong growth, increases in range or increases distribution to the wider business. 

Managing people over the course of my career made me realise that I was not alone in feeling this unease at shouting about my big wins.  I had many direct reports who found it equally as uncomfortable to communicate their successes. 

In a perfect world, we would automatically receive recognition for our hard work.  However, the reality is that in most blue-chip organisations your voice will be lost in the noise if you fail to speak up.

Does this sound like you? It goes without saying that to progress your career and fulfil your potential, you will need to overcome your discomfort with declaring your accomplishments.  Here are a few ways I think you can overcome this self-limiting behaviour.

Apply the “Window and Mirror” Leadership Model

I encountered this model in Jim Collins’ book “From Good To Great” which states that leaders should look out the window and give credit to those responsible for positive outcomes, and look in the mirror to take ownership for negative outcomes.

To be clear, you don’t need to be in a people management position to apply this principle.  Chances are that if you feel uncomfortable shouting about your success, you are the type of person who veers on the side of selflessness, and this probably means that you have no problem looking in the mirror and taking responsibility when things go wrong.

Therefore, looking out of the window is more applicable to you when you score a big success on your account.  When communicating your success to the business acknowledge all the stakeholders who helped you achieve the fantastic result. 

Ask yourself: “Don’t others also deserve to be recognised by the wider community for their contributions?” Praise the Brand Manager who delivered the energetic presentation at the NPD kick-off and the Category Manager who spent hours in store with the Buyer reviewing their fixture. 

When you approach the communication in this way you make it about serving others and not just you.  See whether the application of this model makes the process feel more comfortable.

Do what feels authentic to YOU

Perhaps an email addressed to 20-30 relevant stakeholders in the business still feels unnatural as a form of communication to you.

My advice here is to do what feels most authentic for you.  If you prefer verbal communication, then perhaps you might make a presentation to update the business at a weekly Sales & Marketing Update.

If this feels too daunting, then you might prefer to communicate your wins at cross-functional Account Surgery updates.  That way you can assemble the key stakeholders and directly inform them of the success, as well as acknowledging their stellar efforts to help you to achieve the result. 

I have personally found that the establishment of Account Surgeries have worked best for me in previous roles, since they instil a regular cadence of communication to the business and foster a culture of collaboration.

However, the disadvantage of cross-functional Account Surgeries is that they often don’t involve senior stakeholders who need to be made aware of your strong performance.  In that case, perhaps you could try to find some time in the Commercial Director or Managing Director’s diary to give them the abridged update. 

Given how busy these more senior leaders are, make sure that you are succinct with your updates, providing them with the most salient points to amplify the impact of your message.   This will also help you build relationships with people in the business who will ultimately be your sponsors when it comes to succession planning.

Don’t rely on your line manager to champion you

My other bit of advice here is to make sure that you control the narrative regarding the wins on your account.  I have made the mistake in the past of trusting my line manager to communicate my wins to the business and they ended up downplaying my involvement at the expense of themselves and others.

I’m not trying to sow the seeds of doubt in the relationship with your manager.  However, YOU should be taking ownership of your results, good or bad.  It is not only good practice for your career but also ensures that you relay your message exactly as intended.

How building Mental Fitness can help you be more authentic

Having stronger mental muscles through building mental fitness will help you to overcome self-limiting beliefs and negative emotions.  Being more mentally fit will also help you to connect more closely to your values, allowing you to be your more authentic self.

As is true of any lasting habit change, this takes at least 6-weeks of intense work.  If you are interested in this game-changing program then take the Positive Intelligence Saboteur Assessment https://www.positiveintelligence.com/saboteurs/ and then book a free 30-minute coaching call with me at https://www.expcoaching.co.uk/ to find out more!