A fatal career mistake: your great job DOES NOT speak for itself

You are great at what you are doing but someone else in the company regularly gets the credit for your results… while you are not moving anywhere. What are you doing wrong? And how to change your career for the better?

Have you ever heard one of your coworkers take all the credit for a job that was done by their entire team? Some corporate creatures possess that amazing talent of presenting any group success as their single-handed win. Disgusting behavior, isn’t it? And you probably hate it as much as I do. But what if I tell you that, as Career Realists, we might learn something very valuable from these dishonest people?

Why this trick works

When an employee talks about their projects saying “I’ve managed to close the deal with Company ABC” or “I have compiled our new budget”, she is implying that the work was done primarily by herself while belittling the efforts of her colleagues or subordinates. And, though most managers understand that one soldier does not make a battle, their subconscious mind catches the affirmative and result-oriented statements “I have managed” and “I have compiled”. That’s simply how our perception works: it reacts to the confident tone and voila! – the employee is viewed as a successful achiever and top performer.

And that’s exactly what your coworker is counting on.

Career reality check: why you don’t do the same, and where you are mistaken

Having worked with tons of great professionals in transnational corporations and small companies, I’ve noticed the same mistake they repeat, time and again (which I used to make, too, early in my career): they don’t feel comfortable talking about their accomplishments. Hoping that their great job and outstanding results will speak for themselves. Thinking that drawing attention to their successes is cheap, boastful, and self-serving. As a result, the only person in the company who knows about their contributions is usually… just themselves.

Why is it a mistake? Because your busy manager won’t bother wondering what intellectual or organizational superpowers you had to unleash to get the job done unless you kindly clue them in. Have you done some extensive research across multiple databases to locate a lost piece of data? Built a great relationship with a key customer to take over their account from a strong competitor? Used your excellent communication skills to resolve an issue with vendors and saved your company millions of dollars? You are rightfully proud of yourself but only briefly mention it to your boss? Alas, that’s not modesty. That’s a big – and fatal – mistake.

What you should do instead

Stealing other people’s credit for a well-done job is just wrong. The good news is that you don’t need to use this dirty little trick to get noticed.

But what you should be doing is start talking to your boss about your successes instead of just giving her a matter-of-fact bottom-line result, telegraphic style. If other team members helped you, acknowledge their contribution. But focus on the role that you played in the process, and emphasize the results you managed to deliver. Talk in more detail about what you have accomplished.

Doing that, use result-oriented action verbs in the Present Perfect Tense, such as “I have managed to…”, “I have compiled…”, “I have analyzed our data…”, “I have met with…”, etc. While focusing on business results, these verbs sound very assertive and help create a feeling of completion, confidence, and success. How can you start using this technique? Think of what you did for your most recent project, where you stumbled upon some difficulties or barriers, and how you overcame them. Then select an action verb and provide more context.

For example:

Instead of saying “According to the data from Financial Department…” say: “I’ve managed to get the data from Financial Department, and here is my analysis…”.

You are being honest while also getting more assertive and highlighting your accomplishments.
Very quickly, your boss’ subconscious will build an image of you as a successful and masterful professional. And that alone may drastically increase your promotion perspectives.

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