Introverted-Friendly Self-Promotion

Being an introvert in an extroverted work world is exhausting. For introverts in extroverted fields like sales, marketing, PR, and HR, add another layer on top of the exhaustion. For introverted professionals whose workplaces infuse extroversion into daily life through open office layouts, constant meetings, frequent ‘optional’ social events and random pop bys at your desk, add another layer on top to the exhaustion. 

This constant exhaustion can quickly lead to burnout, especially when introverts feel the need to work significantly harder to "make up" for their differences. The false hope is: if I work hard enough, I will be seen. Time and time again, this is not the case. Introverts frequently get passed up for jobs, promotions or career-making projects, receiving vague feedback like “you need to have more executive presence,” “people just don’t know you well enough” or “you need to work on your communication skills”. This happens even when their work is consistently of higher quality and more impactful than their peers who are advancing.

This may be what brought you here - wondering how you can ensure you aren’t passed up for another opportunity. You now know that the work doesn’t speak for itself and that you instead need to start speaking for the work - aka self-promotion.

For many introverts, self-promotion feels like a dirty practice, like it involves compromising their values. For others, self-promotion brings to the surface the reality that we can’t do it all ourselves - we need others to help us get promoted - and that is scary. And, because self-promotion involves engaging with others, it can be an additional draining activity in an already exhausting environment.

However, not all self-promotion tactics need to conflict with your values or be energy-draining.

Let’s explore some introvert-friendly self-promotion strategies:

General Self-Promotion Tactic	Introverted-Friendly Version
Build relationships at work in order to be known	The reality is, you don’t have to be known by everyone in order to advance in your career. Focus on being known by the key decision-makers who influence your career path. Identify these individuals—ask around if you’re not sure who they are—and then concentrate on building deeper relationships with them. Many introverts prefer deep interactions with fewer people (quality) over surface interactions with many people (quantity). In order to honor this preference, find ways to have deep interactions with the short list of people who do have influence over your career. There are many ways to engage beyond the surface with leaders at work, such as: Develop a mentor relationship Position yourself as a valuable resource Ask thoughtful, engaging questions Example: One of my clients discovered that their promotion required approval from their skip-level and skip-skip-level managers. By forming a formal mentorship with these leaders, they were able to engage in meaningful discussions about their career, bypassing superficial small talk and creating strong, influential connections.
Share your achievements, ensuring your specific contributions are known	Many introverts feel uncomfortable drawing attention to themselves. Instead of focusing on self-promotion in the traditional sense, look for ways to: Share the vision you have for your work Champion the numbers and results of your projects Share lessons learned from your work If leading a team, emphasize team achievements while subtly linking these successes to your leadership Example: A former colleague, who was an introvert, became known for their visionary ideas by frequently discussing the transformative potential of a new product. By weaving their vision into everyday conversations, they became synonymous with the product's success, establishing themselves as a key thought leader without overt self-promotion.
Seek out high-visibility opportunities, such as speaking engagements	While speaking engagements and large meetings are common visibility strategies, they can be draining for introverts. Consider ways to gain visibility that tie into introverted preferences: Sharing your work in a written or visual way through email or internal channels like Slack Doing a ‘road show’ with the work, approaching people 1:1 or in small groups Delivering your presentation over video call to decrease intensity Example: A client recently revealed to me that they were spending upwards of ten hours to prepare their notes for a one-hour meeting. Upon further digging, it was clear that there was no reason that this large meeting existed in the format it did except precedent. There were no group-wide decisions being made that required everyone to be in the room at the same time. My client shifted the meeting to four separate 1:1 meetings with these business leaders, which greatly reduced my client's stress. The bonus for this was it allowed my client to go deeper with the leaders and more fully understand their business context.

As you can see, there are ways for introverts to better accommodate their needs when engaging in self-promotion. That being said, these activities will still pull from the energy reserves. Given this reality, the most strategic thing an introvert can do for self-promotion is prioritize their efforts. If an introvert were to use all of the reserves they have for self-promotion on one thing, I would recommend that it be regular career conversations with their managers where they can get alignment on their career goals and get actionable feedback.

If you would like to work with your introverted qualities in a more deliberate way, consider joining the Courageous Presence program.