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Promoting your own image is simply a question of letting your friends, colleagues and
acquaintances know what sort of person you are. Their impression of you helps them to form an
opinion of you and so influence their idea of your personality. Once you realise this fact, it
becomes obvious that you can begin to work at promoting your image. If people perceive you as
off-hand, distant and aloof you will not make much of an impression on people with whom you work.
If, on the other hand, you are viewed as being cheerful, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable,
your status and value increase immediately and you are see as someone worth knowing. From that
point on it is easy to develop skills which will help you enormously in your career.
Analysing this skill from an employment point of view, it is not difficult to realise that if
your colleagues accept you and find you responsive you will soon become trusted by them and earn
their respect and approval at all stages on the management ladder. If you work at it you will
find it easy and the benefits you receive will far outweigh the effort you make. Being helpful to
and interested in your colleagues, helping them to solve problems and offering advice when
requested will quickly be noticed by your immediate superiors. The next step should consist of
letting your immediate superior know you are quite prepared to help in putting forward any new
ideas or procedures with which they may need assistance.
Build a rapport with your boss so that he appreciates your help and co-operation and you will
find that you become more valuable to him. By taking these steps you have promoted your image to
staff and management as a trusted, helpful, respected, flexible and co-operative employee. You
can now begin to promote your own image even further. The next objective is to sell yourself as
somebody who has the qualifications, skills and personality to be seriously considered for
promotion. If people come to you for advice and your advice is trustworthy, taken and followed,
you are now considered as a respected and trusted adviser. This is important because from that
point you can quite easily build your reputation into a valuable asset which can now be used in
promoting and planning your career.
One of the most important tools at your disposal is the ability to communicate. This is a skill
that needs developing with constant practise, as the most important feature of all is CLARITY. If
you can express yourself clearly no matter how complex the subject and your listener can
understand and follow your dialogue, this will give you a huge advantage over other people. This
skill is extremely important and needs to be used constantly until it becomes second nature.
People will then be in no doubt as to what you are saying.
Planning a strategy for self promotion is not the same as planning a career path, although it is
unlikely that you will be able to do one without the other. As previously mentioned in the
Introduction it is absolutely necessary to fully understand yourself. Only then can you identify
your weak points and remedy them so that you can eliminate them totally or at the very least
improve them so that theyre no longer a handicap.
One of the most critical areas is your self-assessment and the action you take as a result of
that assessment. Self promotion entails being able to sell yourself to others, thus gaining their
confidence, particularly to those people who can influence and further your career. This requires
effort, knowledge and personality, as opposed to obsequiousness, toadying or any other
undesirable forms of attracting attention. Consequently you will be less likely to alienate
people around you and so retain their respect and trust and possibly generate another positive
attribute, Admiration.
To summarise How To Promote Your Own Image, firstly you must be able to see yourself as others
see you. You then need to work on eliminating your problem areas and make every effort to become
friendly, trusted, flexible and respected by your colleagues. Learn to be articulate, factual and
positive in your approach to problems. A smart appearance and confident body language are
tremendous assets. Developing a clear strategy to organise these skills, not only at work but in
your social life, will quickly become second nature to you. Finally, never overlook an
opportunity to sell yourself as a person who wishes to be considered for promotion.
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Self Help
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