When that role became available, Greta reminded me that we should surface opportunities to our internal team rather than assume there was no interest.

The reminder was a good one, and I caught the hint. Later that week, when I opened the role to the entire team, I asked Greta if she would be interested in applying for the Stockholm role. We have already explored her subsequent success in securing that move.

As a leader, the lesson I learned here is not to make assumptions. Always give everyone the opportunity to engage in a new opportunity. If it is a single job opening at stake, only one person is going to end up being successful, but you’ll have more information about your team, their motivations, capabilities, and expectations.

As an individual who is not a natural self-promoter, who nonetheless is interested in advancement, there were lessons here too. Your manager, even with your best interests in mind, is not a mind reader. You’ll have to find a way to communicate your desires and that means a degree of self-promotion.

Learning from Greta, I later commented to my manager that I was disappointed not to be asked to apply for a role similar to my own that happened to be based in Asia. Reasonably and understandably, she had no idea or expectation that I would. That conversation allowed her to recalibrate in her own mind what I might be interested in and where she might sponsor me in the future. It was one of the pebbles behind an eventual landslide that brought me to China and Asia.

Because, sometime after our conversation, my manager alerted me to a role in a different part of the world and asked me if I would be interested. I was, and she introduced me to the team lead for that role. I interviewed, but ultimately was beaten to it by a better candidate. Of course, I was disappointed, but as part of the preparation for a role, I imagined myself in it and began to immerse myself in the challenges and opportunities the job would bring and how I would handle them.

In this instance, though I failed to secure the role, my preparation had made a positive impression, and the team leader began to think about how he could move things around in his organisation to open up a different role for me. That was the role I would assume in Shanghai: one of the defining roles of my career and one I may have missed without Greta’s valuable lesson on self-promotion.

Summer’s key framing was to be clear in her own mind what she was aiming for: her long-term goals and the short-term goals she needed to achieve for the company. She maintained that if she felt the company and the work within the company was delivering on her long-term goals, she’d be more enthusiastic and committed to achieving the short-term objectives, and this enthusiasm (coupled with her great capability) would show. It would be natural, then, that her achievements would be well recognised and she would know she was on the right path for her future. By avoiding being drawn into competition or battles with others, she would save herself needless anxiety and actually stay focused on what the company needed and where she would be most effective.

Summer worked diligently and happily, knowing that what she was working on aligned with her long-term goals and that she was building useful skills. She trusted it would be rewarded as she met or beat all the expectations she had been given in the interest of the company’s success.

As we go through school and university/college, we are used to needing to show good results, competing for a relatively limited number of places, and we get used to progressing every two, three, or four years as we gain particular qualifications. It is natural to expect the workplace to operate somewhat similarly.

Yet, a career is not usually linear. It will be like a game of snakes and ladders, where at times you’ll move forward a few steps and sometimes just one. Occasionally, you’ll leap forward unexpectedly and, hopefully not too often, you’ll experience a setback as a result of a mistake you have made or a bad event that is not entirely within your control. A career lasts a long time and will involve a number of step changes, lateral moves, new skills, thrills, and a few disappointments.

The sooner you can chart your own course and define your own metrics for success, the quicker you’ll find a degree of relief and a better focus on delivery and achievement rather than competing for praise or visibility without the substance to back it up. When you are later drawn into situations where you need to be more visible or need to self promote, you’ll do so with greater conviction and that will show.

Wilson was hesitant to challenge his new manager on this directly; he was also unsure of his chances, as he had little common context or experience working with the new leader. But he owned the problem by confiding in a colleague in the same team for advice. This colleague was a much more comfortable self-promoter, and knew the new manager from prior experience and was very happy with a more direct approach!

This colleague simply spoke with the new manager, explained the situation, and suggested reconsidering the bonus. Wilson was asked to provide an overview of his results again. It was reviewed and revised to Wilson’s appreciation.

Sometimes the direct route is the best, but there is no way Wilson would have been able to break his own cultural shackles to do it unassisted. But to his credit, he owned the problem, catalyzed a solution, and remains grateful to his friend for stepping in.

Bernadette chose not to raise her hand for a role for which she was brilliantly suited. It was in a different team from one she had worked on before. It was an exciting, high-profile role, but she was not 100 percent confident she could stretch to deliver on it. For these reasons, she was not in the company’s obvious consideration set, nor in her own mind.

However, Hari had seen her work in different contexts and at different times and thought she would be a strong candidate, with transferable skills that would be compelling. Hari encouraged the recruiting team to reach out to her.

A week later, Hari asked how things were progressing and learned that Bernadette had declined to apply. It could have ended there.

However, Hari is stubborn and called Bernadette directly. He explained why he thought she would be a strong candidate, offered to help her with her interview prep, and encouraged her to put her name forward. He spoke to the recruiters again, asked them to let him know if she did not come forward, and encouraged them to interview her if she did.

After a couple of days of consideration, Bernadette finally raised her hand. Hari’s instincts were right, and Bernadette excelled in the interviews. Today, she continues to thrive in that (very senior) role and makes a nonsense of the doubts that she had at the beginning of the process.

Often I would see team members reluctant to ask or accept help, but it almost always leads to better outcomes. Even if the conclusion is that you do not need assistance, you are likely to re-engage in the task with more vigour believing that to be the case.

It can be nerve wracking to open up to colleagues or your boss if you feel that you are struggling on a task or feel that you would be shining a light on not being able to get something done on your own, yet can you reframe this thought process as measures you are taking to ensure the strongest possible outcome for the issue at hand?

He was unsure whether even to apply. There were two far more experienced candidates who should have been able to leverage their experience to position themselves as the natural choice for the position. He entered the hiring process as an outsider for the role.

Sajith consulted one or two people he trusted and spoke directly with the hiring manager to ask whether he would be welcome to apply. Much of his decision-making process was driven by a fear of looking back and regret that he had not raised his hand when given the opportunity. He did not want to be wondering ‘what if?’.

He was certainly aware of his underdog status. This self-examination and nervousness were channeled into preparation, a skill he felt very confident in. Preparing for those conversations helped him examine the skills he would bring to the role and how he would articulate them, and also identify gaps in his knowledge that he needed to address.

As a result, when he came to the interview, he was prepared on the subject matter and prepared to demonstrate that he both wanted and could do the role.

In the interview process, Sajith shone. Maybe he benefited from a little complacency from the other candidates, but he also benefited from thinking deeply about the requirements of the role, the strategy of that part of the organisation, and what the hiring manager was looking for in order for this team and his broader team to be successful.

To support his preparation, Sajith wrote a strategy paper outlining what he would focus on if he were to receive the role and why this would lead to long-term success for the team. This preparation made him stand out in the interview process. In the end, the decision to offer him the role was not even close. Even better, that same preparation allowed him to make a fast start on taking up the role. To the surprise of nobody, he continues to thrive.

He effectively used his skills and interests to leverage home-field advantage to secure the biggest role of his career to date.

He started by giving her advance notice of the topic to be discussed, and then, a little later, he gave her advanced warning that he would call upon her to speak in the meeting.

Jane lost sleep over this initially and was incredibly nervous, but defaulted to her usual method of careful preparation. As a result, whenever she spoke, she could tell that people were listening and valuing her opinion, and she became confident enough to engage without needing her manager to prompt her.

In this type of scenario, you can always check in with your manager or the meeting leader to understand their perspective: Are you contributing enough? Too much? How would they like you to show up? You might even talk about a recent meeting and a point you wanted to make but did not. How would they like to see you contribute next? There is value in that conversation; you are signalling a willingness to contribute, you are getting more information, and the other party knows you might have something to say and so will be more likely to make space for you next time around.

Of course, you may not always have the opportunity to prepare in advance. Perhaps the meeting has gone off-topic, or the agenda has been shelved in favour of something more important and urgent. These are tough situations if you are an introvert used to reflection and time before committing, usually in writing, to a point of view; these are tough situations if English is not your first language and you are trying to follow the flow of the conversation and insert yourself into it; these are tough situations if your cultural bias is not to embarrass yourself by speaking up and making a mistake in front of others.

However, you should take confidence in the fact that you have been asked to the meeting. If you have something to say that can add value, you should contribute.

The good news is: the more you do this, the easier it will become. The bad news is that you need to embrace the uncertainty to get the ball rolling.

Typically, she mapped out the capabilities required for the proposed role and then aligned them to her strengths and weaknesses. Meanwhile, she sought to understand the hiring manager’s style and goals and to identify the other candidates for the role. If she could not find out the latter, she’d think about who prospective candidates might be, where they might come from, and what their strengths might be.

She would then prepare her answers. Clearly, she could not anticipate what the questions would be, but she could prepare to communicate the key points that the company would wish to know and aim to influence the thinking in her direction.

In no particular order, Gao Li wanted to convey a fit in terms of values and working methods. She wanted to ensure there was an understanding of her key strengths and how to leverage them in the role.

Gao Li was very self-aware when there were gaps in her application or when there was the potential for perceived gaps. If these were potential dealbreakers, she would not let them go unspoken. She felt it was important to discuss these things rather than have them linger and be addressed when she was not in the room. At least if she raised them, she would be in a position to offer perspective or a rebuttal.

Finally, she would look to shape the discussion so that not only could people visualise her in the role, but her comparative strengths with others were seen as being critical to success in the role (and by contrast, her weaknesses were reframed to be less critical and even perhaps an asset).

If that sounds like a lot of preparation, it is. But it is focused and efficient, and I recommend rereading the list. The formula works.

An interview is often one of the most nerve wracking interactions for someone who is not used to or comfortable self promoting. However, by breaking down the task into its component pieces, Gao Li created a step-by-step method that created a structure which allowed her to show the best of herself in the moment.

Tommo was down as he had received a lukewarm performance review. He felt his manager was unable to assess how challenging his job was compared to others on the team.

There was merit to his concerns. Instead of being responsible, as some of his peers were, for one big, mature, growing market, he was responsible for several smaller, more volatile markets. It was a more complicated task.

His very natural response was to be stoic and work harder.

Given that not everything was in his control, the results of this extra effort were not always effective and did little to improve his self-confidence. This increased his nervousness, which did not help his composure nor his confidence in his capabilities.

Meanwhile, others within the team took the plaudits for their larger contributions, which only fuelled further frustration.

Tommo sought a way to feel comfortable taking control of this problem, or at least the elements within his control. It turned out there was a lot he could do, and all of it was certainly better than saying nothing.

Did Tommo have an agreed set of objectives with his manager? Could Tommo provide a self-grading of his contribution against these objectives, along with the context behind his thinking? If Tommo had excelled against some of these objectives last quarter, was his boss aware of them? If Tommo had struggled against the objectives, equally, was his boss aware of it?

If Tommo had excelled against the objectives, he likely would not have spoken up for fear of being seen as a braggart, a cultural overhang. But he began to think about reframing this problem and addressing his hesitancy.

Was there an opportunity to share his learning from this work? Was there an opportunity to suggest leaning into some stretch (additional) goals given his progress?

If he had been struggling, he was reluctant to share with his boss, given that he was already nervous about the relationship. This was more challenging. No one likes to share potential failures.

Tommo spoke to a colleague who encouraged him to think about being the ‘CEO of his area’. ‘All the company’s resources are yours’. If that were the case, would you not look to bring in your manager and potentially others to help solve the issue as part of your team?

Tommo also thought about others who had gone through similar issues in the past. Could he swap notes with other peers and colleagues as to how they had coped in similar situations in the past? Had they come up with inventive ways of providing their leaders with additional context on the difficulty of their work? Had they come up with methods of simplifying their work perhaps?

Tommo thought about sponsors or people who might be able to speak to his manager informally to gauge what his manager thought of him and what he wanted from him, if this wasn’t coming through in his conversations with his manager.

In short, though he was in a tough spot and unhappy, there was a lot that Tommo could do to take some control of his situation and break the problem down.

In the end, he came up with a very good idea: to invite his manager to the region to meet customers in three countries. This was not direct self-promotion by any means, but through his manager gaining direct, firsthand experience of the markets, many of the issues and differences Tommo was dealing with were revealed to the manager.

Not only was he more appreciative of Tommo’s work and independence, but he also provided Tommo with good coaching on how to be more effective, given his particular constraints. It helped Tommo immeasurably, but would not have happened had he not taken ownership of the problem and thought of ways to improve his situation.

I once met a senior media executive who declined a speaking opportunity at an upcoming event because ‘I have worked hard to create a career where I do not have to speak publicly’. I respected the choice, but I also recognise that in my own career, I would not have even been considered for my last two roles if I had not had a willingness and a competency in speaking to groups publicly.

Consistently for Non-Self-Promoters the idea of taking to the stage or speaking to large groups is terrifying and can be a stumbling block. But, there are ways of breaking down this task to make it less intimidating and breakthroughs are possible - even to the point of enjoying and looking forward to the experience.

Consider Rachel: she was terrified at one point of public speaking.

If someone learned this about her, they would be surprised. She was then, and is now, enormously capable, funny, and engaging, with a sharp intellect and a warm personality that immediately puts people at ease in smaller settings.

Nonetheless, speaking in front of a group reduced her to a bundle of nerves. The way she got through it was largely through hard work: practice, practice, practice.

There were other refinements too. Rachel chose her clothes carefully. She had experienced an occasion when it became very obvious that she was sweating a lot, and realising that added to her stress and made it much worse. So, now she chose her colours carefully and wore a thin underlayer too. If she were to sweat, and she would, at least it would not show. Taking one thing of potential worry away was a win, one less thing to add to the stress.

If speaking publicly, Rachel would do what top athletes do: visualise her race. She would visualise the space she would be in, what she would be seeing, and think through whether she would be sitting or standing, where she should be looking, and who she would be expected to interact with.

By visualising and preparing in this way, she took some processing away from the brain in the moment, to allow more space to focus on her words and her performance.

If she were presenting in person, Rachel would ensure she had plenty of time, travelling the day before if necessary, to see the space and be in the space to imagine delivering her presentation successfully the next day. I never heard her express it this way, but these are all productive steps to try and create home-field advantage, or, at least, to minimise the disadvantages of playing away from home.

On one occasion, I had promoted Rachel to a new position within my team, and I wanted to ensure that she was recognised and that her team and its objectives were more widely known. An opportunity arose for her to speak to a few hundred senior executives. I made sure she had plenty of notice and support for creating the materials, but I asked her to speak. I knew she could do it; I knew she would do it well, but I also knew she would not enjoy anticipating it.

The day came, and she did very well. Her delivery was organised and clear. She put her team on the map and underlined her status as a very capable leader. Rachel did it by brute force. She practiced until her delivery was perfect, until she could blank out the room and focus on landing her story. It was a terrific eight out of ten, even a ten out of ten if you understood the tension and nerves that the speaker went through to get that far.

But this story has a more magical ending.

Rachel went on from my team to a broader role, and although we saw each other once or twice a year, we had not had time to chat. The same team event came around: Rachel was due to speak again and I was in the audience.

Her delivery that day was off the charts. Easily a ten out of ten. We need to go back and downgrade the prior eight; it was so different. A complete transformation.

Rachel’s new role involved a lot of speaking in front of a large team. She still practiced, of course, but now the practice was less constrained by nerves about getting through the presentation; she was less concerned about flubbing her lines, less concerned about the audience being there, and less concerned about not being good enough. Practice now could be much more about the delivery, refining her timing, and her audience engagement. But honestly, all I could see was Rachel at home just being herself. That vibrant and engaging personality, evident in one-to-one sessions, is now brought to the stage for everyone to see.

There is a lot to be said about engaging and breaking down problems into smaller parts with incremental wins along the way. The approach may help you reach new skills and capabilities or bring more choices into your reach.

The meeting had taken a bit of a turn from what was initially envisaged, and Jiwon’s typical approach was quiet and thoughtful preparation. At the end of the meeting, there was some doubt in the room from the most senior person present about her capabilities; nothing of deep concern, but a pencilled-in question mark.

The very next morning at the earliest opportunity, Jiwon delivered a clear and precise email attaching the data that proved her point (which she did not have it readily to hand in the moment), and contacted that senior leader directly and offered to walk him through it, which she duly did and did well.

Not only did she erase the pencilled-in question mark, but she also gained reputation points for not backing down, for the thoroughness of her approach, and her initiative. She demonstrated real ownership and put herself on the senior leader’s radar as someone who could be trusted, both in terms of subject matter, but also to speak up when it was warranted.

In terms of self-promotion of himself and his team, Kevin’s approach was outstanding. Kevin was based in a different city to me. I had expected him to present via video call, which would be the typical solution between offices (and often even between floors in the same office!).

Instead, on the day, Kevin was there to greet me in person for the meeting in Shanghai. He then asked his four team leaders to present over video their progress and plans, chipping in and adding context where appropriate, anticipating my body language to understand when a question was coming, or when I was confused, or when I was enthusiastic.

The presentation was well-structured, neatly presented, and error free, but the way he chose to deliver it made a stronger impression.

He promoted his team and his team leads. He gave them the opportunity to present and demonstrate their capabilities, and he provided a safety net by being in the room with me in case of any miscommunication or questions. His team came across as unified, and he came across as organised, deliberate, and proud of the work that the team was doing.

Kevin could have chosen to dial in remotely. That would have saved his time and the airfare. But, he calculated that the benefit of being in person would be greater for him and his team. He turned the natural anxiety that he and his team was experiencing into a productive solution which allowed them to show their strength and unity.

You may not always have the budget or the luxury of being in the room, but the broader point stands: you can own the fact that you are anxious and rather than be a victim of it, use that anxiety as a catalyst to imagine productive solutions.

Yet Joe was outstanding that evening. He was on top of the detail (as always), but his presentation was particularly fluent, and he made good use of engaging with the camera to show confidence to those watching remotely.

I asked him about it the following day. What he had cleverly done in his home setup was to have his script for the session situated just above the camera’s eyeline. He had practised beforehand and was able to deliver the content fluently without it seeming as though he was reading verbatim from a source.

He made use of a sub-optimal situation to create a solution that was to his advantage. He turned all that anxiety into productive action. In many ways, it became both better and less nerve-racking for him than presenting in person would have been. He brilliantly made use of literally being at home to create a home-field advantage.

If you are not joining a call from an office, how can you control your environment? Do you need to test the software you are being asked to use? Have you had issues with it in the past? Do you know what to do? As we all know, there are many differences between Zoom, Teams, Meet, Webex, and so on. Even the same camera hardware on your own devices may react differently to them. If you have worked hard to project the right background, you may be undone by a broader scope used by one of the services.

If you are going to speak to somebody over the phone, can you pick a spot with good reception? Can you pick somewhere quiet? Have you prepared notes you can refer to that the other person will not be able to see? Have you tested your headphones to ensure they work? Are they sufficiently charged?

If you are in the room, have you been able to prepare sufficiently? Do you know what you want to say? Can you partner with someone else in the room to help reinforce your point or open the floor for you at the right moment?

You are looking here to control the controllables. You are nervous about self-promotion, understood. So, let’s not be nervous about anything else. Turn those nerves into an energy source for good preparation and so turn them to your advantage.

That feels easy to say and harder to do, but the truth is that the interviewers and the organisation you are interviewing for simply want to see the best of you. For these moments, they are actually on your side. They have decided to invest the time, they do not want it to be wasted either.

I recall my first ever interview. It was a complete disaster. The interviewer asked me to say what my friends would say about me which, with the benefit of hindsight, is a very kind question. Its direction is to say ‘Please feel free to tell me about your strengths’.

Unfortunately, my camaraderie with my friends was largely based on sarcasm. Absolutely, the last thing I would want would be for this interviewer to speak to my friends!

I simply froze in the moment and did not even manage to joke about exactly that conundrum. The interviewer simply thought I had no real strengths (unfair), nor any meaningful composure (very fair), and that was as far as it went.

The questions being asked by an interviewer throughout an interview actually are: ‘Please tell me, to the best of your ability, about your strengths, capabilities and values so I can accurately assess if there is a good fit for you within this company.’

You are doing them a favour by talking about yourself! You have permission!

Self-awareness and an interest in the interviewer are advantages here too of course. Be relevant and check-in with the interviewer to ensure that you are on the right track.

But, as someone who might ordinarily be nervous about self-promotion, try and reframe your nervousness with the insight that the company wants to hear from you. In addition, delight in the fact that you are not having to compete for airtime. A moment in time has been created, exclusively for you, to share your experiences and perspectives.

Some of my most rewarding interviews (as an interviewer) have been when the candidate has relaxed and just told me about their work, their values, their capabilities, and their hopes for the role.

Sometimes that calmness comes with experience - both good and bad. Sometimes though, it comes from powerful reframing: This moment has been created just for me to share why I am a good match for this position. And, I am not going to waste it.

I really admired her. This was something that mattered to her. Anne felt I had let the team down. She felt overlooked and undervalued. And, she had the courage to address it directly with me in a polite but firm way that left me in no doubt of her concerns.

We used all of the two hours. I was happy to defend my decision and happy to walk through my rationale. It helped that I was prepared: my team had debated this promotion rigorously, and I remembered our discussion clearly.

Anne came away from our debate with a stronger understanding of the key attributes needed for the roles, how these were being demonstrated by others in the team (including the promotee), and both positive and constructive feedback to help Anne continue building her capabilities.

It is important not to be a victim.

The overall outcome in terms of promotion did not change in this case, but by taking ownership and agency over the situation, Anne received clarity and coaching, and I, as leader of the team, did too. I had plenty to reflect on regarding how I should talk more about the necessary skills for our roles and how I communicated promotions to the team.

Not everyone can engineer a train journey to make a prisoner of their boss(!); nor will everyone feel confident to present their case in such a robust and direct way, but if something rankles, it is usually a strong sign there is a conversation worth having.

Anne was polite but (very) firm. It was very clear to me that this conversation would matter greatly to our future relationship, and I needed to take the concerns seriously and treat them with respect.

Anne did not take me to task for reasons of her own self-promotion - or at least that’s not what gave her the confidence to speak up. She took me to task for my perceived inconsistency and potential lack of fairness to other team members. That reframing was powerful enough to give her the conviction (and passion) to debate.

In the conversations I continue to have around Asia, both in large groups and is one-to-one conversations, the story which resonates with people the most - and therefore I tell the most often - concerns a former team member of mine, Yuan.

Back in 2016, Yuan and her team closed an agreement with one of our larger advertisers that would see a record level of spending over the following 12 months. It was the largest such partnership we’d ever seen in Asia and one of the largest worldwide.

I asked Yuan to write a summary that I could share with our leadership to celebrate this work and milestone. On reflection, I could have provided a little more context behind my request. At the time, I did not think to provide much guidance because the type of mail I was suggesting was very typical in the organisation.

However, promotion and self promotion were not Yuan’s core strengths. Yuan was of Asian background and to showcase her success was completely counter to her upbringing.

I had to smile when I saw what she had sent me: ‘Scott, as discussed, we have just closed on an agreement with xxxx for $xxxx. Yuan.’

Her modest, concise and fact based approach should be admired, but it was also a little naive.

What I needed was something that would allow me to ask for more investment in our work, generate further credibility in the team we were building, raise awareness of the scale of our customers and business etc.

I needed a short summary that spoke to the complexity of the client conversation, the time spent, the way that we had dealt with the client’s needs, the examples of collaboration and teamwork we had witnessed through this work, how that agreement would set the tone for other such conversations, how we could use this conversation to drive further success, and the resources we would need to do so.

I asked her to reframe her thinking on what I was asking her to do. I was not asking her to document how great she was - though this would be true. I wanted to celebrate this example to secure more resources to add even more successful examples over time, and to elevate the reputation of the overall team to make future requests easier.

As I said to Yuan - ‘please think of me giving you permission to self promote and also that I am asking you to do this for all of our benefit. You might find it difficult, but I promise you, you are not only helping me, but also the entire team and even the company as it will help us put resources in the places with the highest potential’.

In the end, I asked another member of the team to be her ghost writer.

She sat down and interviewed Yuan about the deal and created an email that she could send and that I could forward.

Cultural inhibitions or character traits run deep. But, as the plaudits came in, so did the good questions such as ‘are there more opportunities like this one?’ and ‘do you need more resources?’ Yuan began to understand that there was a benefit to self promoting that was less about bragging and less about self, but more about ensuring that the right resources made it to the right places for the good of the company overall.

That reframing made sense to Yuan and she began to see such promotion as a tool for strengthening her team and the business overall which she could lean into on future occasions. She became a stronger and more effective team leader as a consequence, even as she always held herself accountable for the quality of work she would promote.

I propose to offer other powerful examples of reframing in subsequent posts. There are many effective and accessible ways which can be used to reduce obstacles or inhibitions to self promotion.

By cosmic fluke one of the topics that my boss wanted to speak about that day was first hand feedback from the creative agencies. As he asked his question I instinctively looked to Junichi who I knew had precisely the answer from the source.

Junichi processed the question in near real time, English is not his first language but he is fluent, and yet as he took a breath to begin talking, one of my US colleagues beat him to it.

The colleague’s answer was not great, he felt he had enough to be able to show up well in the meeting, but Junichi knew he had what my boss needed. He waited for his colleague to finish, took a breath and was beaten again by another native speaker who wanted to try his hand at having some time in the sunlight.

At this point, I could have stepped in and opened the door for Junichi, but I really wanted to see how he would respond. We’d been talking about this a lot in the context of his own personal development.

In the end, he did speak up: he was precise, to the point, and had exactly the right insight. Once he had spoken my boss was happy and the meeting moved on. But, he had to wait for 5 people in front of him before he found the window to speak.

That may say more about company culture, but it also goes to show that sometimes you need to be patient and you need to persevere.

It can be tough to show up in a meeting, particularly so if it is not in your first language, particularly so if you are the most junior person, particularly so if the critical mass is in the room and you are online, particularly so if you do not know the group well, or particularly so if it is at an awkward time of day or night for you.

It would be easy to be crowded out and get frustrated, but Junichi took agency for this situation and the company was better for the fact that he did.

He took a lot of confidence from the interaction; the company benefited from his knowledge; and, other colleagues who would typically be nervous of speaking took inspiration from his patient engagement.

There are other paths though which you might find more accessible. I shared the story of Joey in my last post. This time I thought I’d relate the story of a new female report of mine, Ruby, who sent me her own self-appraisal of the period just gone.

This was not typical within the company and I know only a handful of people that have done this on a regular basis. Despite my initial misgivings I thought it was such a great idea that I adopted it myself.

I think Ruby’s initial motivation, after a long career in Australia with a mixed bench of bosses, was to ensure that she was treated fairly and appropriately. Through Ruby’s eyes this was not self promotion, it was self protection.

Ruby outlined for me her objectives for the period and how she had performed against them, including a number of additional tasks that she had invested her time in. She even included a recommended performance rating.

Initially I bristled. Was I not trusted to do the right thing? Was it not clear that I was paying attention?

But, once I put my feelings and pride to one side, I really appreciated it.

It gave us both the opportunity to have a really clear and direct conversation. I would have the opportunity to appreciate her work. I would have the opportunity to debate if I disagreed. We would both have the opportunity to provide additional context and concrete examples with which to celebrate or collaborate upon.

And for her, it gave a degree of protection from bias from poor managers by putting them on notice that if they wanted to disagree then they ought to be prepared!

Ruby cannot not change the dynamic of a whole market - though she does try! - nor make every manager as capable as they should be, but she could and did take agency on her own trajectory.

I recommend it.

It is very straightforward. It is certainly assertive but it is not aggressive. If you wanted to reframe it away from what you might perceive as blatant self promotion, think of it as taking steps to ensure self protection and to create equity and fairness in the system.

It is also true that the manager does not need to agree and ultimately maintains control over the outcome provided. You are just providing better data for discussion.

As I said, I adopted this myself as part of my ongoing process.

It was useful for me in the context of the management of my own team and then in the upward reporting context with my own boss.

A secondary benefit - but a significant one - was an incremental nudge to stay focused on the key objectives during the quarter and not to be distracted by other less important things even if they were calling for your attention.

Don’t let that be the end of the road though.

There are other paths.

They may be more meandering but are available, accessible and can be just as effective in helping you secure your goals or build your skills or confidence. Indeed, sometimes even more valuable than a more conventional approach.

I have several stories to tell on this theme, but in this post let me focus on Joey, who on her own initiative, created a low risk, high reward path to a new role.

Joey is highly capable, smart and motivated. She had been a very successful contributor to one particular team for nearly a decade. She had joined out of college and so this team experience defined her career.

Joey retained - and retains still - an ambition that one day she’ll lead her own business. To do that she understood that she would need to do and to learn different things.

However, having been committed to a single team since college, she felt that nobody really rated her ability to do anything other than what she had been doing. She was stuck. Or so it seemed.

Joey undertook a series of coffee conversations in the company, often introduced by people who had worked with her in the past and valued her work.

She gradually built up a picture of what the other groups did and had one or two ideas of what she would like to work on.

In one particular area of interest, she knew that the team was very short staffed and was unlikely to be able to solve that through hiring in the short term. And, here, Joey was so smart.

She showed great initiative and pitched how she could contribute on a part-time basis while doing her existing role (which she had largely mastered).

The new team could not believe their luck.

They took Joey on, worked together for six months and then worked for another six months to create a role to bring her on full time within the team such was her contribution.

In working towards a situation where she hoped to interview for future roles, Joey ended up bypassing the entire process by the team creating a role for her.

Joey created a low risk, high touch approach which opened up a path which otherwise would not have been available to her.

However you find your way to seize the initiative, whether it is indirect and circuitous, deliberate and calculated, known well in advance or discovered over time, there are many paths available to you.

It is not always the loudest voice, the fastest hand or the boldest claim which wins - play to your own strengths. Temper the boldness or control the risk to engage in service of your broader goals, finding an approach which suits your own skills.

I have a host of examples on this same theme which I can bring to future posts: real examples which you may be able to relate to and use.

If you have your own successful examples or examples that you have seen work for others, please do feel free to contribute to the comments. I’d love to hear them and I am sure others would benefit from them too.

I have long been fascinated, across a wide range of sports, by the statistical advantage to playing your games in your home stadium rather than away in your opponent’s.

In English football, the home crowd is referred to as a ‘twelfth player’ whose noise can lift a home team, intimidate opponents and, particularly, the referees. It is a role that many supporters’ clubs take very seriously!

The statistics justify their interest: teams win an average of 1.63 points at home versus just 1.10 away from home in the Premier League. The same teams playing each other at the same game, but in a very different environment, yielding different outcomes.

American sports exhibit the same effect: Basketball (NBA ~63% home win ratio); American Football (NFL, ~58%); Ice Hockey (NHL, ~59%); and Baseball (MLB, ~54%).

In the Olympics, the home nation consistently overperforms expectations. Australia saw a 78% increase in gold medals in Sydney 2000 versus the prior Olympics in Atlanta; China experienced a 50% increase in Beijing 2008; Great Britain and Northern Ireland yielded a 53% increase in gold medals in London 2012.

My encouragement to you here is: can you find a space in which you feel ‘at home’ where you can perform at your best? Where do you feel better prepared?

It is very unlikely that you’ll have a crowd cheering for you, but if you can play to your strengths you’ll be tilting the odds in your favour.

Using Home Field Advantage. Greta’s Story.

One of my prior team members was a real personality with the most wonderful laugh that could be infectious and lift the entire team, but who was in a bit of a career funk and whose negativity was dragging the team down.

We had a really attractive position open up in our Stockholm office. It is a beautiful location, the standard of living is exceptional, the business opportunity was good and the team was in good shape but had even more potential with the right catalyst.

My mind immediately focused on sourcing somebody from the local market and/or Scandinavia more broadly. As I did not have anyone like that in my current team, I had already discounted the team as a potential source of talent.

Nonetheless, a member of my team did apply: Greta.

She absolutely lit up in the interviews and successfully positioned herself and her broad and long experience within the company, its product and its partnerships, as more important than the local knowledge that others might have. In any case, as she outlined, she would learn that quickly.

Greta recognised that she was not from Sweden, did not speak Swedish and had no working experience of the market. Written so bluntly, it is remarkable that she was considered or that she considered it!

However, what Greta was able to frame brilliantly was a very strong background of success in the current business, strong product knowledge, excellent relationships with team members locally and the product teams in the company. No external candidate would be able to represent these qualities.

Greta also made the excellent point of cultural awareness and success in living abroad and making progress in a ‘foreign’ environment. Although not from the UK, and not a native English speaker, Greta had been living in London with her family for some time. She already spoke several languages.

Her pitch played to her strengths: ‘I am the low/no risk option. I know the teams, the people, the products, the culture, and I can assimilate easily to new challenges and environments’.

The interview panel unanimously agreed that she was a supremely qualified candidate and offered her the role.

She went on to lead the team magnificently for many years and now, still lives and works in Stockholm with her family - albeit for a different business in a different industry.

If you try and compete in ways which do not suit you, you will be choosing to play ‘away from home’. You may win, but it will be more difficult and over time you will be less successful than if you can leverage your own strengths, your own ‘home field advantage’ in how you show up.

You may certainly need to play ‘away from home’ sometimes, but if you can be more aware of your strengths and more aware of how they can shine and differentiate you, you may be able to turn the interactions to your advantage. This is the equivalent of playing at home. The field is tilted in your favour. That is precisely what Greta did.

Over a decade ago, I wrote a training deck that sought to encourage my team to own the frustration they were experiencing back then — a feeling of helplessness in a corporate environment that favoured speech over the written word, in a language that was not their own; where the first voice was usually the boldest rather than the best-prepared; and where resources appeared to flow to those with the flashiest pitch rather than the best opportunity.

I wanted them to channel the energy from that frustration into more positive actions.

The team’s natural intelligence, work ethic and willingness to learn meant we could create a bridge to success from a place which suited their strengths rather than encouraging them to be something they were not.

The impact was profound: the investment the team received, the results they delivered, the respect they earned — all of it took off.

The training turned out to be effective not just for that team, but for pretty much all of Asia, where there are many similar cultural antecedents despite the region’s enormous diversity. Quickly, and by surprise, it transcended borders and was shared widely amongst teams globally.

Beyond the crowd in Asia, it resonated disproportionately well with women; with introverts; with a number of people that always found themselves or felt themselves to be in the minority; and, with a great many people experiencing imposter syndrome.

With each group, there was a sense of relief that this was not just another deck or leader telling them to act like someone else or to try to be something that they were not. There was an eagerness to put a different set of ideas to work.

When I announced my retirement from Google, after nearly 16 years in different leadership roles, the most popular request I received from teams around the world was to present this training deck again before leaving.

I spoke to huge groups from the U.S. to Singapore to Brazil to Japan to Germany and beyond, both over video and face-to-face in packed rooms where there was barely room to stand.

In some places, teams who could not attend the sessions live, organised viewing parties to watch the recording together afterwards - something I had never seen before. I learned just recently that my last recording is still circulating, much like those initial slides did a decade ago.

Clearly, this is a theme that continues to resonate far and wide.

My goal in writing up my notes and stories is to capture the spirit, messages and lessons of the deck, and turn them into a successful guide to self-promotion for non-self-promoters, grounded in the real experiences and successes of people I have been proud to lead and work with.

It will help you show the best of yourself whatever your starting point; to define and describe your worth; and, to help maximise your impact and enjoyment at work.

I want to create something that will be as useful to people just starting out as it will to those in their midst of their careers, beginning to feel a bit stuck or frustrated.

It will do this not by encouraging you to be something you are not — but by celebrating your unique qualities, and by helping you build upon your own advantages Just like:

The sales team who took inspiration from their own culture to create an entirely new approach that put them on the global map.

The young engineering leader in baggy jeans and a hoody who thrived with corporate clients without having to compromise her personality and style.

The job candidate with weaker credentials (on paper) who out-prepared the competition to win a dream role by reframing his skills and achievements.

The mid-career manager who found that a change of team and location opened up a new route to career fulfilment and growth.

All of them found their own advantages, and made them count.

I hope you find their stories inspiring, and I hope the guidance laid out on the posts that follow gives you the confidence to build your own career path, in your own way, on your own terms. In return, I hope you might also share your stories in the comments to help others too.