When You Ring Your Bell, Someone Will Come - CareerEnlightenment.com

For many, this can be an impossible question. We’re conditioned from an early age to not brag. If we bragged as kids, our parents told us to stop. Or maybe we held back in fear of alienating our friends. For me, I had friends who bragged and I vowed to not be as annoying as them.But remember that there is a difference between bragging and telling someone honestly what makes you so good. I recall my grandmother’s words to me, since I was such a quiet kid, “Honey, you’re not good enough to be so modest”.Here is an exercise to follow if you find yourself stuck.Think of a time in your career that you were the most successful. It could be any time, at a job, in life, with friends, etc. Recall what happened as vividly as possible. Then ask yourself, “what did I do to make this a success”? What role did I play in the event’s successful outcome?Here’s an example.My client Stef couldn’t articulate what she is the best at. So she recalled a time when she helped a local chap ter of a charity she belongs to go from ranking 150 to 15 in the country, for charitable donations.I asked her what role she played in this. And her answer became the center of her personal brand. She said, “I had a goal of taking my chapter to number 1. I know we had the resources but lacked the organization. So I put together a plan and delegated the right people to execute the right parts of it. I held weekly status calls to keep them accountable, since they were just volunteers. Pretty soon, all of them were making their own decisions, without me. I was very proud.”She took a failing volunteer organization and through sharing her vision and plan, turned it around completely. I would say that this is a skill many organizations would love to have.Bell ringing on Twitter and FacebookTwitter and Facebook, unlike LinkedIn, focus more on posts than on profiles, mirroring an actual networking situation.If you rang your bell on every post, people would feel that you are indeed bragg ing. Consider the 80|10|10 rule for online postings.80% of your posts should be conversational, including questions, observations, photos, quotes, and other original content.10% of your posts should be reactions to other people, including comments, retweets, likes and interruptions.10% of your posts can be self-promotional, including personal branding statements, statements about what you are looking for, something you accomplished or something nice someone else said about you.Some guidelines for bell ringersIf you noticed from Stef’s story, it wasn’t really about her. It was about what she accomplished with her unique skills. The difference between bragging and telling someone what makes you the best is focus.Here are some guidelines you can use to avoid bragging and do more bell ringing:Focus on how your skills accomplished something greater than yourselfHave a story to back up your claims of greatnessBe just as willing to talk about what other people did to help when askedKno w when to ring your bell and when to stopBell ringing is always about a promise of how you can do something similar for someone else, it adds valueRing your bell to meI’d love to hear what makes you the best at what you do. Are you feeling weird about sharing your successes? Do you have an annoying bragging friend? Feel free to share yours on the online version of this magazine. Or find me on Twitter or Facebook at:@Joshuawaldmanhttp://facebook.com/careerenlightenment.com