Martina has not been able to find a new job for six months. It’s not because of her qualifications. She is well qualified. She has work experience. She says it might be her self-confidence and that she gets nervous in interviews. She thinks one of the reasons for her lack of success in securing a job is that she is very realistic about her skills and when asked in an interview she is honest.

Successful people aren’t honest.

That’s the message she got.

I think, successful people are not dis-honest, but they are better at conveying who they are and how they contribute to the world. They are better storytellers (and they don’t suffer from imposture syndrome).

You need to learn “Self-Marketing” and not just work away like an ant.

I have made the same mistake in my earlier career. I worked away and hoped that someone would notice. I saw male friends getting promotions faster, saw them earn more and some of my female colleagues also surpassed me. With a delay of a few years I did well too.

I think I only got better at communicating to my manager what I was doing and how I contributed to the success of the team. I asked for weekly meetings and sometimes even wrote quarterly summaries. I only had this idea because a former manager told me to communicate more. Had she not told me I would probably still sit in that same office.

Another manager showed me how to improve my self-marketing. She recommended a number of great books to me. She also gave me “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway”. After reading the book, I resigned from my managerial role officially to start my own company Global People Transitions GmbH.

I care for Martina. I want her to succeed and do everything to help her but her story might be different than yours or mine.

Tell me how you show your contribution to the workplace on a weekly basis and if you want to discuss this please schedule a meeting with me.

[tweetthis]I think, successful people are not dis-honest, but they are better at conveying who they are and how they contribute to the world. They are better storytellers (and they don’t suffer from imposture syndrome).[/tweetthis]