Peak Performers by Tiffany Uman

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3 steps to self-advocate with confidence

December 16, 2024

Thank you for joining my Peak Performers newsletter! Every Monday, we cover a crucial topic along with actionable tips to accelerate your career. Let's dive in!

Real talk.​
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Hard work alone isn't enough to accelerate your career. Exceptional performance has become the baseline, table stakes if you will.

If you're waiting for your efforts to be recognized on their own, you're leaving your career to chance.

The secret of peak performers? They advocate for themselves with clarity and confidence. Yet, you're never taught how to actually do this, which can easily lead you to be overlooked for promotions or key opportunities, even when it feels like you're doing everything right.

Self-advocacy ensures your contributions are recognized by decision makers who can fast track your growth and amplify the value you bring.

In fact, earlier this year, I interviewed the VP of Sales at Newell Brands, formerly at Spanx, who emphasized how self-advocacy played a key role in her professional ascent. Doing so allowed her to shine in the consideration set of key influencers in her companies and opened up proactive opportunities for her.

Here's how you can do it too.

Don't sit on the sidelines

Taking control of your career starts with you.

I routinely encounter high-achievers unfamiliar or uncomfortable with advocating for themselves out of fear it will come off as cocky or make it seem like they're taking all the credit or making it only about them.

Here's 3 alternative perspectives to consider instead:

→ Advocating for yourself is not egotistical, it's necessary. Do not assume that others simply know what you are working on and the value you're creating.

• Example: Leverage weekly status meetings with your boss to highlight your project updates, the progress you've made and the results you've generated thus far. Don't just talk about what you're doing but how you're implementing it so they can see both your impact and strengths.

→ Advocating for yourself allows you to make your distinct value known in the company. It separates you from "teamwork" and identifies your exact contributions.

• Example: Reflect on how things have moved forward, improved, or were completed thanks to the initiatives you specifically led. Use "I" statements for those aspects while saving "we" for the parts that were more of a team effort collectively. This is particularly important as a people leader where much of the impact is often derived from your team's output.

→ Advocating for yourself increases your visibility and exposure, allowing you to reach your goals faster and with the right supporters in your corner.

• Example: Explicitly share what your goals are (both short-term and long-term) with your boss. Only then can he/she fully support you and ensure that you focus your energy in the right places. Otherwise, you run the risk of going down a path that's not aligned with your development goals.

3 steps to self-advocate with confidence

1/ Communicate what you want

Unspoken goals lead to missed opportunities. Make your aspirations clear to those who can support your career growth.

→ For example, want to move into a leadership role? You can say "I’m eager to take on a leadership role in the next 6-12 months. What skills or experiences should I prioritize to prepare?"

→ Or perhaps you're eyeing a department switch? You can say: "Over the last year and a half, I've developed my skillsets in [X, Y and Z ] which helped me drive significant growth in my department. Most notably, [fill in 3 key result highlights]. As a next step, I’m very interested in transitioning to [department X]. I believe this would build out a complimentary skillset in [A] which would lend itself well for my next step of [X role] in the company. Could we discuss how I can position myself best for making this move this year?"

Additionally, here's 5 action steps to take that will move you in the right direction:

1. Meet with individuals already in your target role or target level of seniority. Discover insights on your opportunity areas to get there.
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2. Seek feedback beyond conventional "you're doing great" commentary; pursue actionable feedback to measure your progress and hold yourself, and boss, accountable.
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3. Identify skills, trainings or resources you lack to reach your goals. Focus only on the non-negotiable missing pieces that fall within the decision making criteria of achieving your aspirations.
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4. Maintain an ongoing dialogue beyond performance reviews for continued accountability and follow-through in your progression (i.e. quarterly). Advocating for yourself once or twice per year is far from enough to stay ahead of the curve.
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5. Track your progress and wins so they are consistently top of mind to share. Seek out opportunities where you can bring them to light (i.e. status meetings, town halls, executive meetings, informal touch points, etc.). Every moment is a moment to shine, especially in front of your senior leaders.

Pro tip: Always have at least 3 recent wins, ready and top of mind, to share when speaking with executives, during idle moments as meetings begin or end, or even in impromptu conversations with people who are not as exposed to your day-to-day work.

[Check out my recent newsletter on 3 ways to shine in front of your boss]

2/ Bring forward the right data

Don’t downplay your achievements as “just doing your job”. This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make that directly minimizes your impact and value in the eyes of decision makers.

Think about it like this. If you don't think your wins are anything to write home about, why would they?

You set the tone. Not others.

Instead, lean into who you are and pair that with relevant data to fuel your self-advocacy most effectively.

Here's 4 things you can do right now to put data on your side:

1. When providing project updates or progress on your work:
   • Do use this as as opportunity to share how you overcame challenges, managed complexity or collaborated with others effectively to reach the final outcome.
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   • Don't limit yourself to simply sharing what you did (i.e. your job duty).
2. Highlight your strengths as often, and emphatically as possible. For example:
   • "Through my strong analytical skills, I was able to easily decipher which data points were most relevant to implicate the decision making criteria on the project. From here, I collaborated with X and Y teams to fill in any missing gaps and come to a consensus on the ideal path forward. This led to the final outcome of a 10% improvement in time to market which was 3% better than the initial target."
3. Craft your 30-second elevator pitch encapsulating who you are, your areas of expertise/strength and the impactful results you've led.
   • "In my current role as lead marketing strategist on X project, I managed our recent campaign that increased web traffic by 40% and boosted revenue by $500K incremental within six months. I love turning data into actionable insights and aligning our different teams to deliver strong results together, and really leaned into that on this critical project."
4. Lead your career path conversations:
   • Highlight your proudest achievements as quantifiably as possible (i.e. in terms of sales growth, cost reductions, time improvements, process efficiencies gained, before and after comparisons, exceeding initial targets, coming in below budgeted spend, satisfaction scoring from internal or external partners, etc.).
   • Share your takeaways along with key areas you wish to continue developing.
   • Voice your aspirations and goals to gain alignment from your boss.
   • Welcome feedback and ensure you build the appropriate action plan together.

Own the data. Own the narrative.

[Check out my free LinkedIn Learning nano-course How to advocate for yourself in your career]​

3/ Build 1:1 connections with decision makers

Relationships drive opportunities. Advocating for yourself, when done right, allows you to cultivate advocates who will also champion your work even when you're not in the room.

Here's how to do so.

→ First, identify who these decision makers are in your organization:

• Who tends to be listened to the most in meetings?
• Who is most involved with initiatives driven by leadership?
• Who is well networked and connected across departments?

→ Second, make yourself visible towards them:

• Attend networking events and get involved with company wide initiatives.
• Book coffee chats, lunches, or initiate follow-ups from previous meetings with them directly.
• Create opportunities to showcase your impact outside of your day-to-day work routine.

→ Third, decide on your follow-up cadence:

• Recognize that their time is valuable; be clear on the purpose of your encounters.
• Establish together the cadence and nature of your meetings (i.e. impromptu, monthly, etc.).
• Show gratitude. This goes a long way in the pay-it-forward cycle and will fuel continued reciprocity in your future exchanges.

Pro tip: The holiday timeframe is actually a great excuse to get in touch with them, express your appreciation for their leadership or work you've done together this past year, and keep yourself top of mind.

How will you choose to advocate for yourself?

If you want to make yourself truly seen, heard and respected, self-advocacy is an absolute must. It allows you to remain in control of your career and rally the needed supporters to get you there. Leaning into this with confidence and clarity unlocks faster growth and more opportunities proactively.

You've got this!

PS. If you want to improve your self-advocacy or feel more confident in that, simply reply back to this newsletter. I'd love to chat with you! And yes, I personally respond to every response I get.

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Your mission this week is 3-fold to help you self-advocate with clarity and confidence. Set aside some time with a notepad, take a few minutes to dive in, and use this work to take intentional action this week.

1/ Reflect on your 5 proudest accomplishments this past year:

• What did you do particularly well in those moments?
• What kind of impact did you generate for the company through these wins?
• What key learnings did you gain from those experiences that can be replicated as best practices to bring even larger impact?

2/ Distinguish between what you have done vs. your team:

• Outline clearly which parts of your accomplishments were done directly as a result of your efforts.
• Practice verbalizing this to ensure you have a clear differentiation in your speech between your contributions vs. what others have done to reach the end result.

3/ Determine one moment to advocate for yourself this week:

• Perhaps this is speaking up in a work meeting with leadership, being more explicit about your goals with your boss, initiating the preparation for your upcoming performance review, etc...Whatever situation you decide, be sure follow through and use this as fuel to build more moments of continued self-advocacy going into the new year.

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