Good morning. Good afternoon, good evening. Uh from wherever you're joining us. Uh Today, I'll be talking about art of tooting your own horn and taking credit for your brilliant work. Before we get started.I want to ask a question if you plant a seed in the soil, but don't water it and don't give it any um sunlight to it. What do you think will happen? You can post it in the chat. What do you think will happen to the seed if you don't water it uh and just uh you know, leave it in the soil. So as the messages are coming out, you probably would have guessed that the seed without any water and sunlight will not grow. No one probably would even know there was a seed in the soil. Think of your career the same way. Hard work is the seed and self promotion is the sunlight and water. If you don't self promote for yourself and tell others about the work that you have done, it will be very difficult for your career seed to grow. My name is Mata Sui and I'm a senior engineering manager at Workday. I also founded and I'm leading the South Asians, er, G group at Workday, I've been at Work Day for about six years and in the industry for almost 20 years I learned the importance of Tooting my own horn in my first five years in my career.

When I believe that hard work alone is enough to get notice and get ahead. I saw my peers advancing their career getting credit for the project. Not because they were doing not because they were doing anything better or more work than me. It's because they were talking about their work and this is what I'll be sharing with you today. I'll be going over how to put you on the right way that's authentic to you and that can help promote your career. So today we'll, we'll be covering what is tutoring your own honey, mean the role of tutoring in your career and how to tut the right way and get ahead. So let's get started. So what works come to your mind when you think about Tooting your own horn, please type it in the chat when you think about someone um you know, mention tooting your own horn or blowing your own horn. What do you think that means? Uh and I mentioned self promotion. Um and uh you may also think about it negatively. Uh It definitely means self promotion and uh that is the right way to think about it. But some words that may come to your mind that have negative connotation to it. It's, you can think of, sometimes people will think of it as bragging. It's all about me. I don't want to be self absorbed and you might actually picture this guy or this lady, you know, actually blowing from the home.

But I want to tell you that's not what it's about. There is an art of doing it the right way that will feel natural and authentic to you. Art of tooting your own horn means to think about it, not as bragging, but it's about owning your work, being proud of your work and sharing the work that you have done with others. You have to advocate for yourself because if you don't do it, then who will if you don't toot your horn, no one is doing any tooting for you. So let's change the word tooing. And as Anna had said earlier, let's change it to self promotion. So today we'll be covering about role of self promotion in your career. So data shows us that self promotion leads to getting hired, getting promoted, paid fairly, getting the important visible projects and moving ahead in your career, not to mention higher salary and bonuses.

So as you can see if you provide the nourishment, your career with self promotion, just like the seed, your career will you know, start to grow and reap those good rewards. So now let's talk about how to self promote and get ahead. So I'll be going over actionable tips. And the first one is mindset. I talked about this earlier, but this is really the first step. Instead of seeing self promotion as bragging or something, I have to do it. We need to reframe it as self promotion and self advocacy. Think of it as a way to help others understand your work and your contributions with this understanding and mindset. We can overcome our barriers of modesty and we can convey our contributions in a positive light which feels authentic to us. You need to take ownership of hard work.

You have already done the work. Now, it's just about telling other people what you have done. Hard work is important but alone, it's not enough. So you need to educate your peers and managers about the brilliant work that you're doing and have done self promotion is an important tool in our toolbox and we need to use it. The second thing is self promotion is an accomplishment log. This is something I've been doing for a long time and I tell everyone I mentor um and advise others to do it. What is it? It's really simple. It's just an ongoing list of things that you have completed. It could be a Google doc word document, any note taking app, it could be pen and paper. The format doesn't matter what matters is you write down the things that you have completed, you can do it daily or at least do it weekly. And what happens is, and I really recommend doing it uh weekly because, you know, over the weekend you may forget things. Um So what happens is once you have this accomplishment log and it could be just a line or two, it doesn't need to be long. Uh And when we complete something, we usually think, oh, this is just normal. This is part of my job and downplay it.

But when we start to write down our contribution and achievements and especially the things where you went above or beyond, it could be a critical feature, a critical customer. It could even be challenges that have come in the way and that you have overcome and how you overcame them. So once you start to keep this accomplishment log, it's a good way to refresh your memory before an important meeting or for those performance reviews. Furthermore, this is an instant confidence booster, you know, those negatively biased and those imposter syndrome, that negative talk that goes in our head that oh, we are not good enough. All of those things. When you have those moments go back to your log and read the things you have done. This is also useful uh when you have elevator speech, you know, when you run across someone, an influential leader or someone in your company that you've been meaning to talk to and ask you, hey, what are you up to these days? What are you working on, you can easily, you know, um, say 1 to 21 to 3 accomplishments on top of your, um, log that you have written down. So this is a really useful to tool.

It doesn't take long, you know, just a few lines every week and you'll be surprised how much difference it can make. The third thing is speaking up oftentimes we assume that people in our team and managers know that, you know what you're working on. So there's no need to talk about it, but we need to understand that your manager and your peers are preoccupied with their own priorities. So don't assume that they know and don't assume that they're mind readers speak up and help them understand your contributions and educate your manager colleagues, even managers, manager on the value that you're providing to the company. It is your responsibility to make sure that your recent wins, challenges, your accomplishments, you have overcome, uh that the challenges you have overcome are communicated at the right time to the right people and don't think about it at bragging, just think about it as educating them.

Another part of speaking up is speaking up in meetings, in group meetings, in one on one meetings and making yourself visible in these meetings. You don't have to talk about yourself, but it is important to be visible and you can do that by asking appropriate questions, contributing your thoughts to the discussions and being an active participant in the meetings. So it is important to speak up in meetings, in one on ones and also in bigger meetings, the more you do it, the easier it will get, I promise you'll get too used to speaking up. You'll get used to talking about your accomplishment and sharing them rather than just downplaying them. OK? And this, if you take just one thing away from this talk, let it be this one, be your own friend. According to a study published in Psychology of Women Quarterly Women downplay their own accomplishments, but have no trouble promoting a friend. Put it another way, we are much nicer to our friends than we are to ourselves. Isn't that crazy? We are very critical of ourselves.

But if you think from a friend's perspective, you can be nicer to yourself. So think about it. How would you highlight the recent wins if your friend had achieved them? Thinking from a friend's perspective and in terms of ed advocating for a friend, you'll feel more confident about verbalizing your own contributions. So try out be your own friend. I think you're gonna like it and have mentors and trustees. Self promotion is not natural for many people.

It wasn't natural for me, but it is a learnable skill. And one way to practice it is with mentors and advisors, the people you trust. And it's important to get more than one mentors. You can have mentors above you, of course. But you can also have mentors at the same level or even below you, which is called reverse mentoring. This is a trusted group of people where you can practice tooting your own horn in a safe place, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. And it can also help you prepare for those important meetings. If you feel like, oh, you know, I don't want to sound like it self absorbed and talking about my accomplishments may sound like bragging. Then practicing with your trusted group of advisors and mentors is a great way to get feedback and become comfortable speaking in front of others and we can get started right here. This is a great conference where you're meeting like-minded women. So with the network you're forming here, you can type it in the chat if you want to create a some a group and have online meetings to practice talking about your work. So just type it in the chat if you wanna create such a group. And um you know, then one of you can take a lead, create a meet up or a group, you can meet periodically and just have this safe environment where you can practice talking about your accomplishments in a safe way and with a, with a group where everyone wants you to succeed.

So, self promotion and self advocacy are important tools in your tool set and you can help them to help your career grow if you don't do your own horn. Don't complain that there's no music. So to recap, you can start doing your own horn the right way. That's authentic and true to you. It all starts with the correct mindset. This is the key where you have to think of it as an important tool to get ahead in your career. You have to own your work, be proud of it and advocate for yourself. Number two, keep track of all of your accomplishments so you can review them before any important meetings and performance reviews do not downplay your accomplishments and the challenges you have overcome. Number three is speaking up is important. If you don't toot your own horn, no one will do any tooting for you. So speak up in the meetings in the bigger meetings in the one on ones, even if it feels unnatural at first, just go ahead and do it, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. And number four, be your own friend, please be nice to yourself. Think that you're advocating for a friend and it will put your mind at ease. And number five, find mentors and trustees who you can talk about your work and contribute contributions and practice in a way that feels authentic to you. Self promotion may seem awkward at first.

But this with this new way of thinking and acting, it will become easier over time. Share your work, educate others and watch your career grow. Let's not leave the seed of hard work without water and sunlight. Let's nourish it with self promotion and.