The art of self-promotion in the digital age

Episode 146: The art of self-promotion in the digital age

[00:00:00.000] – Tanya Williams
If there’s one bit of advice I can give anybody is that you are the champion because you are the person who’s going to champion your story. You’re going to direct your career. Start from today from championing yourself.

[00:00:13.880] – Nancy Goebel
Tanya Williams is someone who’s been close to DWG’s circle for many years. We met during her tenure at Aviva, where she was our DWG member hub and sponsor. Nowadays, she’s the Head of Internal Communications at Gallagher Retail. Albeit we teed up this conversation some time ago, it felt like a little bit of magic happened this week. We started with the fall gathering of DWG Trailblazers, and this session centered around futuring for the digital workplace. And the competencies leg of our discussion raised gaps around storytelling broadly and the need to build that muscle within the cadre of digital workplace leaders. But I wanted to pull one strand of that conversation in particular, which is around the need to shift from the language of the digital workplace in storytelling to that of the business. And so that’s certainly going to be an area that we will be investigating further with our members in the months to come. But in the meantime, Tanya shared that she developed a workshop for colleagues to help them master the art of self-marketing and communication which is, of course, at the heart of storytelling, not only for individuals themselves, but their teams, and of course, their digital transformation agendas. Our conversation led to what was effectively blueprint for digital workplace leaders to start to build muscle around their storytelling skills.

[00:02:09.720] – Nancy Goebel
So join me now in conversation with Tanya. This is Nancy Goebel, DWG’s Chief Executive and your host for Digital Workplace Impact. As always, this podcast is brought to you by Digital Workplace Group. Happy listening.

[00:02:25.320] – Nancy Goebel
So Tanya, I am just thrilled to welcome you to the to the Digital Workplace Impact podcast studio. We’ve talked about bringing this conversation together for a while. I have to say that this conversation couldn’t be more timely. We had the last gathering of DWG’s Trailblazers just a couple of days ago, and I thought of you in so many ways during that conversation, And I’m going to pause first to give you a chance to say hello. But my goodness, I have so many things I want to talk with you about.

[00:03:09.990] – Tanya Williams
Thanks so much, Nancy. I’m really excited that we finally made this happen. Thanks for inviting me on your podcast.

[00:03:17.380] – Nancy Goebel
It’s my pleasure. Just to come back to the idea of Trailblazers this week, it was a session that was themed ‘Futuring for the digital workplace’. And the reason I thought of you multiple times during that session was that we were talking about what it takes to make the leap effectively from chaos coordinator to trailblazer, to give a nod back to my predictions last year for this year. And there is definitely a dynamic tension that’s occurring where it often feels like digital workplace leaders are like swans, in a sense, pedaling really hard under the surface of the water to get everything done in support of improving the digital employee experience for the business and for their employees. And as a consequence, it can be very challenging to take the time, to make the time, to think about what’s needed next. And I don’t just mean for the upcoming fiscal year, but looking at a point on the horizon that people are trying to get to and figuring the path from here to there. And critical to that is not only an understanding of what’s happening in our industry at large and the patterns and trends that are unfolding as a set of signals that can help individuals think about how to get from here to that point on the horizon, but also having the right level of conversation with leadership at varying levels, executive committee, board level, even in some cases, and having credible conversation in the language of the business to talk about the future of work and the ways of working needed to get there supported and enabled by the digital workplace.

[00:05:49.150] – Nancy Goebel
AI being the perfect example where there’s just this back and forth at the moment around where’s the value? We’ve been experimenting with this for a year, really coming to a head. But again, that’s one example. And so when we got to the competencies part of the conversation, i.e., what competencies does a futurist need to have? One of the clear gaps that came up was around storytelling. And so ding, ding, ding. I said, My goodness, how timely is this conversation planned with Tanya for this week? Because we talked about building this conversation around the idea that you have developed a workshop that focuses on the art of self-marketing and communications for your organization. Although the learnings can extend well into our community of digital workplace leaders and practitioners, with that context in mind, I really want to dig into this art that you’ve developed. And knowing you, it is something that not only allows the individual to put their best foot forward in telling their story, but their teams, their organization, and their agenda, too, because often you work in layers. And so I’m sharing what I’m bringing on behalf of the audience to the table as the lead-in to this conversation.

[00:07:37.330] – Nancy Goebel
But I also think it would be interesting to see how much that dovetails with what inspired you to develop this workshop in the first.

[00:07:49.900] – Tanya Williams
Thanks, Nancy. So what inspired me? So I think it was definitely my own fear of presenting in public speaking that inspired me to develop this workshop. So I thought this is something that I really need to do as part of my career. And so I got myself a fantastic coach. And it was illuminating because it’s so easy when you know a few tips and tricks and techniques, and you can turn that fear into excitement and actually potentially even enjoy yourself. So I think it was like, wow, why haven’t I done this before? So at the stage of my career, actually, it is about giving back. And we know that actually people fear public speaking and presenting more than death. That was a pretty good motivator for me to say, actually, how can we design this in a way that doesn’t matter actually what stage you’re on in your career, because you could be just starting out, you could be a graduate, You could have been with the organization for 10 years, but actually just showing a few tips and techniques and then practicing, because of course, it is all about practice. There’s no magic here.

[00:09:11.230] – Tanya Williams
And then it’s just been so rewarding to see some of those people adapting it for themselves and really feeling confident. So that’s what motivated me. And then, of course, coming back to what skills you need to get ahead, you do need to be noticed. If you want to be promoted. And of course, in a digital age, it’s very much about your physical presence and your online presence. And there’s got to be alignment between the two. When somebody read something that you’ve written. They should be hearing your voice at the same time. So having that authenticity. And we talk about you’ve absolutely got to be championing yourself, and you can do it in a really humble way. So you do not have to be a show-off to do this really well.

[00:10:04.990] – Nancy Goebel
Well, I think that’s a great level set. I also think it’s worth putting out on the table what self-marketing and communications mean to you in the context of this conversation.

[00:10:19.490] – Tanya Williams
So it’s very much about the art of building your reputation, and you build your reputation every single day. You don’t just wake up one morning and today, I fancy doing some self-marketing. It’s basically how you can build your reputation with the people around you. At the same time, it’s taking people with you. The people who do this best, I think, have a really strategic approach, and I would absolutely advocate that. This is serious. This is what people need to do throughout their careers. How do you approach it strategically? I think as it determines your future success, you need to be looking at what your vision is. Once you’ve established what your vision is, you need to establish what your high-level goals are. Then, very honestly, what outcomes you want to achieve, and only then what activity is going to support your approach to promoting yourself and effectively communicating. And it’s just simply building that plan. So we’re very good as individuals, especially in communications, in building communication plans for our teams, our products, our specialisms, the consulting services. But how often do we actually do that for ourselves? Then when you have that plan.

[00:11:46.040] – Tanya Williams
Obviously, plans need to be adapted. We need to check in regularly. Are you focusing on the right outcomes and goals? It’s very simply about getting a strategic plan for yourself.

[00:11:58.660] – Nancy Goebel
One of the things that I’m thinking is that this workshop that you’ve developed is one that allows you to think about not only your external brand, but your internal brand. At a time when we are seeing so much change happening around us, teams getting realigned, restructured, broken up, moved into different parts of the organization, changes happening vis-a-vis budget, sometimes M&A activity. The inclination is to put an emphasis on the external brand development. But in times of change, it’s equally important to invest the time in the internal brand so that you have options and access to people and resources and all the rest. And so What I’d love to do is talk a little bit more about the internal branding side of things for just a bit, just because I think that the time is ripe for that conversation. So let’s talk a little bit about some of the tactics and strategies that you recommend on the internal side of things with, again, digital workplace leaders and practitioners in mind, since you are one of our birds of a feather.

[00:13:35.250] – Tanya Williams
Internally, your brand is really important. You want to be making an investment for the company you work for. It’s not just demand It’s not about managing-up. I think it’s very much about your peer network as well. So I can’t stress that enough. And when I think about an internal brand, I think you need to step away and think of yourself as looking into a camera and you seeing yourself through the camera. How do people see you? If you were making a movie about your life, what would you see? How do you behave when you turn up? How do you behave when you turn up physically? How do you behave when you send an email? How do you people feel when they receive a communication from you, whether it’s email or digitally online, or you post a comment on an internal platform? Do they go, yay, I’ve got an email from Tanya is there this dread? Oh, no. What now? How long will this email be? What will I have to do on the back of it? Or will you create excitement? People will want to say, Well, I’m going to read that, and actually, I’m going to take some action off the back of it.

[00:15:04.690] – Tanya Williams
How much impact are you having internally? And are you working your internal network? I think people forget about how important that internal network is as well as the external one. I think this comes down to listening. It’s active listening is really hard. If you do it really well, you can influence people. You can be really persuasive. I think that’s something that we can all work a little bit harder on. Because actually, when you listen, you become a problem solver. When people think about you, you want them to be thinking, Yeah, they’re a problem solver. They don’t just come to me with problems, they actually come with solutions. It’s that… And it could be really simple solutions. But that really helps you grow your career, and it also builds trust with people. We know that trust is the most important thing that you build in your personal and professional life, especially if you want to get ahead.

[00:16:06.510] – Nancy Goebel
Well, I think one of the key takeaways that I’m hearing from what you’ve just shared is a reminder that we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. And that just puts an exclamation point on the idea that serving as a listening post is critically important to spotting opportunities on the positive problems on the challenging side of things as a pathway to solutioning. And so that really resonates with me. And when we look to the outside world, you hear a lot about the importance of being a content creator. How much of a part does that play on the internal self-marketing and communications side of things?

[00:17:07.560] – Tanya Williams
I think content creation is absolutely vital to your success. When I think about content creation, I think, why are we creating this bit of content? Does it align to our strategy and to our priorities right now? Actually, do we need to create this piece of content? Also, who are we creating this piece of content for? What’s the value of it? What do we want people to do with this content? Is it going to change our colleagues’ lives? Is it going to change our customers’ lives? Is this absolutely essential? Because otherwise, I think we get lost in the sea of work that we all have. I think we, as internal communicators, we are really strategic. Of course, sometimes those are difficult conversations because you need to be thinking carefully. Are we just creating this newsletter, this bit of content because you woke up one morning and thought it would be really good to promote your practice? Is this something that our clients really need right now? I think It’s about asking some really basic questions. Then when you start asking these questions with these key stakeholders, they’ve got all the answers. You’re the business partner, and you build credibility.

[00:18:45.460] – Tanya Williams
Then also, they build credibility with their audience as well. When they get a communication or a piece of content, it really resonates, it lands well, and people, again, take action off the back of it. You want to be known for not just pumping out content, but really thoughtful content. And people go, Wow, I can really use that. I can do my job better. I can service my client better as a result. So we spend a lot of time thinking about that content creation and how it aligns to the strategy.

[00:19:25.580] – Nancy Goebel
As we’re talking, we’re creating a window into your blueprint for success. And so I wonder if we step back for a moment, what have we missed in terms of painting a blueprint that talks about what good looks like in this domain when digital workplace leaders and practitioners, in particular, hit their stride. And of course, that can be internal communication indicators, but it can also be those who are driving the digital transformation at large or other slices of the digital workplace arena.

[00:20:12.230] – Tanya Williams
So what does good look like? I think it’s consistency and there’s absolute clarity with what you’re communicating. Also, there’s this energy that’s created. So leaders who get this really right create a bit of a buzz around what they do. And now we’ve got great videos as a channel to communicate. And it works really well because people are really visual. And 93 % of what we hear is through tone of voice and body language, and you can get that through video. So it’s absolutely about being consistent and authentic. And people go, Oh, yeah, I’ve absolutely seen one of her videos before. I’ve seen one of his videos before. I’d really like to watch this one. And mixing it up, making sure that you’ve got different voices from the organization So it’s not just the leadership team that you’re hearing from, from people who are client-facing, challenges and the opportunities that they see. But you’re having to constantly think about, How am I to grab my audience’s attention? Because guess what? The same old ways don’t work. And so we are effectively really good marketeers. When you hit your stride, you’re basically thinking about your audience, what they want, what they need, what will make them listen to you.

[00:21:49.140] – Tanya Williams
And then you’re creating that content and landing in a way that basically helps people do their job.

[00:21:58.600] – Nancy Goebel
So as you’re I tend to write as I’m having conversations like this. And the thing that just landed on the page for me is harkening back to your point about outcomes. And There’s a level of importance around having the right numbers at your fingertips to give credibility to a conversation that you want to have. But the thing that people remember, whether it’s at a leadership level or a team level or at an enterprise at large level, is the stories that you tell. So having command of the right numbers to show impact and the drive towards the desired outcomes are just the starting point and the building block for the story that you need to tell and where you can, to pull your previous point in, where you can do that not only yourself, but with others who are experiencing the changes that you are catalyzing and/or enabling adds credibility to that story, too.

[00:23:21.220] – Tanya Williams
Absolutely. I love numbers in storytelling because you can create great infographics, and then you create stories around those numbers. Some of our best leaders do that really, really well. We’re here at X, and we need to get to Y. What’s the story between X and Y? And how are we going to make that leap? And what are all the little things between X and Y that will really add value? I think when when you can translate the numbers into little stories, then people remember them. Actually, I think some of the best CFOs do that really well.

[00:24:12.070] – Nancy Goebel
Yes, for sure. And so that’s the story that you’re radiating and the impact tie-ins supported by numbers and stories. But I also have to think that as part of this workshop, that you share with your colleagues, there has to be an element looking inwardly around KPIs for the individuals and teams who are using your blueprint effectively to track and gauge their social capital within to know, Am I on the right track? What do I need to do next? Et cetera. So is that something you Could you give us a little bit of a window of opportunity into?

[00:25:03.660] – Tanya Williams
Yeah, absolutely. So if you don’t measure what you do, you can’t improve. So we use a technique called impact mapping developed for the software industry in 2012. You can Google it and find that. It’s really, really, really simple. Basically, you work out what your vision is, then you’ve got your top three goals, and then you’ve got your outcomes. Then once you’ve established that, and you’ve got your outcomes there, what are you going to measure? You’re going to measure your outcomes. That’s all you’re going to measure. You need to work out what the right measurements are for you, what behaviors you need to achieve those outcomes. And it’s as simple as that. And then basically, as as you’re progressing with your own marketing plan, it’ll change. You need to be asking yourself, Am I working on the right goals and outcomes for what I really want to achieve? One of the best things I’ve heard our CEO say is that you need to be aiming not for the next job, the job after that. That potentially is what you need to be planning your marketing your plan around. Is it ambitious enough? Are you spreading yourself too thin?

[00:26:37.970] – Tanya Williams
And then basically, just be really honest. And then what’s really interesting is actually, what are the lessons that you’ve learned along the way So yes, anybody can write a success story, but the lessons learned along the way will have far more impact to your audience. And that’s something that we If we shared more, it would be able to be better.

[00:27:05.530] – Nancy Goebel
Well, I’m just going to call out the fact that you’re a living example of that. This very conversation around the art of self-marketing and communication is your way of paying it forward based on the success that you’ve achieved with what I’ve been calling this blueprint. And so the idea that you have a business agenda and it has all of those elements from the vision to the goals to the outcomes down the line, there needs to be a shadow version from what I’m hearing that mirrors what you need to do as an individual to support and enable that and your team, and then how specifically you’re going to be radiating the thought we leadership around that program of work. And as you do that and you share your lessons learned, you’re effectively feeding what you need to do next, but also sharing how that blueprint may need to evolve in practice for the benefit of others as well. And that’s very powerful.

[00:28:27.400] – Tanya Williams
The one thing that I would really like to say about your marketing plan is that you don’t have to be show-off to be really good at this. I think you can do this in a really humble and authentic way. And the best people who excel are the ones that actually promote their teams and their organizations at the same time. They recognize the talented people that they work with, and they also recognize external people as well, partners that they work with. Because there’s nothing worse than seeing posts internally or externally with somebody who just think, now, what is this person promoting themselves? Did you get there alone? Was it all about you? Who was the team that helped you land that? And the role models for me, they don’t always appear in the pictures. It’s never a selfie. It’s about what that person has achieved in a wider team. These are the people who champion their organization and highlight certain people. And they’re always saying, Thank you as well. How easy is it to do that? And then you get noticed when you do that. And you have to do it consistently. You can’t just do it twice a year.

[00:30:06.050] – Nancy Goebel
I love that. I hope you’re not going to cringe when I ask you this. How do you see this blueprint, this practice evolving now that generative AI is in the picture?

[00:30:20.310] – Tanya Williams
So I’m really excited about AI. I’m not excited about what bad things could happen with AI, because obviously we all know that things could be engineered that would not be advantageous for humanity. But when I think about AI in the workplace, in the digital workplace, and how it can help us, I’m genuinely excited because I think just by using Copilot, how Copilot has improved our working day so it can save time on some of the editing. If you want a framework for something, you can put it in there. However, human beings have this amazing inbuilt and embedded authenticity tracker. We can immediately tell if something’s been written or produced that’s not by a human being, now AI will get better. We know right now that we can take a head of a leader, and we can basically get them to say a few words, and we could write a script, and then basically AI will then create a video of that person. Now, if that person just doesn’t sound like they are in person or all their other communication, it won’t be taken seriously, and there won’t be any trust. But I think it will enable communicators to be more strategic in what they do.

[00:31:59.680] – Tanya Williams
I think it will allow for more human connection because we will value that human connection more. I think the future will be a blend, a blend of human expertise, AI, and exceptional communication skills. I think it doesn’t matter where you are, what organizational sector, you need to be thinking about how you can use it to your advantage.

[00:32:30.220] – Nancy Goebel
So trying to draw out another essence point here, I’m thinking that with everything that you’ve said about thinking about ways to bring the team forward as you’re telling stories, AI, in this context, is effectively an extension of that team to support and enable as an assistant, as a coach, and other roles that we’ll layer in as the technology gets better, smarter, and down the line has strong predictive capabilities as well.

[00:33:18.630] – Tanya Williams
When you think about the computing power that it’s got, perhaps AI will have some really good ideas as well. So it’s like if you’re doing a brainstorm, how cool would it be if you invited AI, obviously in a safe environment, to think, Well, what do you think? Just like any brainstorm, some ideas are good and some ideas are not good. Then if everybody knows if you’ve used AI to try and write something, some of it’s hideous. You wouldn’t use it. Not all ideas are good ideas, but it might come up with something really good that would enhance what you’re doing team.

[00:34:00.800] – Nancy Goebel
Yeah. In fact, a bad idea sometimes is the trigger for a moment of inspiration and innovation. So good, bad, or otherwise, if it’s an extension of your team, then it can prompt a wider conversation, exploration and outcome.

[00:34:20.400] – Tanya Williams
Yeah, it’s going to be a blend.

[00:34:21.750] – Nancy Goebel
It’s actually going to be a blend. In our final minutes together, is there anything we’ve missed and/or any final advice that you want to impart under the banner of helping people build their internal brand and/or social capital?

[00:34:45.000] – Tanya Williams
If there’s one bit of advice I can give anybody is that you are the champion, because you are the person who’s going to champion your story. You’re going to direct your career. So start from today from championing yourself.

[00:34:59.100] – Nancy Goebel
Carpe diem, seize the moment, right? Seize the day. Well, I have to say, I know we could have spent the entirety of today talking through all of the elements of your learnings, your wisdom, and thoughts around this space. But I’m going to pause here and say thank you because, as I said, When we started, this conversation couldn’t be more timely. And so showing appreciation is an important part of every process, as we talked about as well. So.

[00:35:43.920] – Tanya Williams
Thanks so much, guys.

[00:35:48.260] – Nancy Goebel
Digital Workplace Impact is brought to you by the Digital Workplace Group. DWG is a strategic partner covering all aspects of the evolving digital workplace industry, not only through membership, but also benchmarking and boutique consulting services. For more information, visit digitalworkplacegroup.com.