always learning

I just finished a fantastic leadership class a few weeks ago. One of the main goals I shared with our group at the begining of the class was that I wanted to learn how to, as a young, friendly, female, working in technology; be more respected at work. Now, I’m certainly not saying there aren’t things I can do to help myself out of this situation and, thus, one of my New Year’s resolutions was born:

Make a concerted effort to be more professional, more adult at work. I need to learn how to speak more professionally, remember to promote myself professionally, and be more confident in what I say. I need to learn how to present myself as an experienced professional all the time. (Yuck! I don’t like growing up).

Coincidentally, I recently read Miss Profe’s Mad Props post about the very same problem. It’s strange to think that you are really the only one that knows why you were hired for your job. You are the only one who knows the extensive experience you have had at your job. You are the only one who knows just how good you are at your job. It would be nice if we all appreciated each other and took the time to actually get to know how and why we are fulfilling this role at work. But, the reality is that we don’t. Since they weren’t involved in my hiring, it’s possible that my current superiors and coworkers don’t know why I was hired, or that I bring as much experience as I do to my job. I guess I just have to remember to give myself mad props whenever I can…

Unfortunately, the problem then becomes how much to promote yourself. I personally have a hard time with this because I was brought up to think that it’s rude to brag about yourself. I guess sometimes it’s more important to remind people why you were hired – even if was only 2 short years ago. But then I see other people that constantly go on and on about how great they are, and I don’t really want to be one of them either. How do you find that balance of being professionally proud of your accomplishments vs being a complete know-it-all about how great you are?

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