Be Your Own Best Advocate

Be Your Own Best Advocate

You may have experienced a time in your career when you were up for a promotion, or a raise. Perhaps you hoped your hard work would show for itself. Or, maybe you thought your manager would advocate on your behalf. 

Producing good work and building critical relationships with people in your organization are important; you can't rely on these things to get what you want.

You have to be your own best advocate. According to a study, those who are excellent at self-advocacy are more likely to thrive in school, work, and life.

Self-Advocacy is a skill you can learn. Below are three strategies to help you become your own best advocate.

As a VIP Communications Pass holder, this article is packed with extra tips and tools to show you how to be a more confident communicator, including videos, downloadable tips, step-by-step instructions, and more! 

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VIP Communications Pass Video: Advocating For Yourself 

 

1. Getting Recognition

Doing hard work and producing excellent results is great. However, ensuring your work gets recognition is critical to getting what you want. This is the time when you have to be your own best advocate.

Consider the following:

• Align Yourself - Aligning yourself, and your work with the company's goals will help you gain recognition. For example, if the company's goals are to increase revenue by 30%, think about how your work contributes to this goal. Maybe you are on the marketing team, and your marketing efforts contribute to the overall revenue increase. When the time comes for you to ask for a raise or a promotion, you can align your efforts with the goals of the company.
• Engage Others - Emailing your entire company with all your wins to get recognition isn't going to go over well. But if you aren't the one sharing your wins, how can you get recognized for your hard work? Engaging others and building an army of advocates is one of the best ways to gain recognition for your work. For example, let's say you have a colleague who is in a planning meeting. The leadership team is talking about the last quarter, highs and lows. Your colleague remembers how you negotiated a better contract with several vendors and saved the company money. Your colleague shares your excellent work with the leadership team. This is how your hard work gets recognized without you shouting it to everyone who will listen! When you engage others to advocate on your behalf, your work will get the recognition it deserves.
• Increase Visibility - Increasing your visibility will help your work gain recognition. For example, if your manager needs someone to lead a project, volunteering will increase your visibility with your manager. Perhaps you have the opportunity to work with people from another department; this is another great way to boost your visibility. The more people who see your work, the more they will remember you and your value. This way, more people in leadership positions will recognize you when a promotion opportunity arises. This will increase your chances of getting a promotion. 

Taking strategic steps to ensure your hard work is recognized will help you get what you want. This is how you can be your own best advocate.

 

2. Me To We

How you approach advocating for yourself can impact the outcome of your ask. Focusing your message on the outcome first can make advocating feel less complicated. It will also show your higher-ups you care about the company and its vision.

Consider the following:

• Framing Your Message - Instead of starting your sentence with "I," try to use more inclusive language like, "we" or "us." For example, instead of saying, "I closed seventeen deals this quarter." You could say, "The contracting team was fantastic, and together we closed seventeen deals this quarter." When you use more inclusive language, it shows you recognize the team's efforts, while also showcasing your achievements.
• Benefit Everyone - As you craft your message, you will want to consider how your ask can benefit everyone. Yes, a raise will benefit you, but how will it benefit your manager? For example, let's say you want to advocate for a promotion. Instead of focusing your message on how the promotion will impact you and your life, tailor your message to include how the promotion will benefit your manager and the company. When speaking to your manager, you can say, "I know the leadership team has put a lot on your plate; if I get promoted to sales manager, I can help offload some of your tasks so you can focus on leading the entire sales department." In this way, you are showing how your promotion will benefit not just you, but your manager as well.
• Outcome First - Another way to shift your message from me to we is to start with the outcome first. For example, let's say you manage the sales department. As the manager, you know your team is overwhelmed and needs support. You decide to ask the leadership team for a new hire. When advocating for this new position, focus your message on the outcome of this hire, rather than how overwhelmed you and your team are. To do this, you could say, "Creating a new role would allow our team to bring in 10 new clients, increasing our sales volume by 15%." Focusing on the outcome first will make you much more likely to get what you want.

Shifting your approach from a "me" to "we" can help you feel less nervous when advocating for what you want. 

 

3. Prepare

If you want to be your own best advocate, you need to prepare. When you aren't prepared you may feel less confident in asking for what you want. The key is ensuring you have gathered all your documents and can clearly communicate your why.

Consider the following:

• Documentation - If you want to be your own best advocate, you need to prepare yourself with documentation. This means looking at your ask from your manager's perspective and considering what they need to know and hear to say yes. For example, if you want to increase your commissions on all future sales, you will need to provide your manager with why this would be important. You could show them emails you've received from clients about how you are the only salesperson they will work with. You could explain how other companies match this commission, and you might leave the company if you don't get what you want. The more documentation you can bring to the table, the more prepared and confident you will be.
• Clear and Confident Messaging - When advocating for yourself, it is critical for you to use clear and confident messaging. This means using confident body language, and direct communication. For example, sitting or standing with your head held high and shoulders back. When communicating what you want, be direct. This means eliminating filler words like um and ah. You also want to be specific and tailor your message, so you ask for what you want. You don't want to be vague or confusing. You can prepare yourself by practicing with a colleague, or in the mirror. The more prepared you are, the more confident you will be.
• Timing - Carefully considering the timing of your ask is critical when preparing to advocate for yourself. This is because when you time your ask right, you maximize your chances of getting what you want. For example, if you want to add a position to your team, but the company just laid off several people, it may not be the best time to ask. However, if the company just posted record gains and new client acquisitions, it may be the perfect time to ask for an additional position.

To be your own best advocate, you must prepare. When you are prepared to ask for what you want, you will feel more confident.

It is critical to learn how to advocate for yourself. Making sure your work is recognized, using inclusive language, and preparing will help you as you ask for a raise, a promotion, or anything you need or want.

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