Self-Promotion and Female Leadership – What’s the Big Deal?
In the LinkedIn era of ‘humble bragging’, self-promotion is something many of us in the working world have had to embrace and lean into. For many, this feels unnatural. Telling strangers or colleagues about your accomplishments, successes and achievements without just plain showing off is a hard balance to get right. However, this is an important balance to try and achieve, especially if you are pursuing, or plan to pursue, career advancement opportunities.
Self-promotion has long been associated with professional success and with decisions relating to hiring and promotions, including promotions to top management positions. This then becomes an issue of major concern when considered with research showing women are significantly less likely to self-promote than men.
For example, research by Exley and Kessler found that when participants were completing self-evaluations of their work and were aware these evaluations would be shared with employers, women gave significantly lower self-evaluation scores than men on every question. In other words, women were significantly worse than men at self-promotion 100% of the time, even when their performance was better. As part of this study, the researchers also asked employers responsible for hiring decisions to decide whether to hire an individual based on the self-evaluation form and what that individual’s salary would be. Employers consistently opted to hire individuals with higher self-evaluation scores, showing that women were consistently less likely to be hired than men to whom they performed equally.
Further research by The Self-Promotion Gap shows just how much women are averse to self-promotion when compared to men. In a survey of 1,016 individuals in the US, 77% of female respondents were able to name anything else they would rather engage in than speak about themselves to a stranger. This included activities such as running errands in the rain (chosen by 47%), cleaning the bathroom (42%) and giving up social media for a week (43%). The study also found that 7 in 10 women would rather diminish or play down their successes instead of discussing them with others.
There are many benefits, however, which female self-promotion can bring. Aside from the increased likelihood of career progression as mentioned above, women discussing their achievements and successes can inspire others. The Self-Promotion Gap survey found that 83% of female respondents had been inspired by listening to other women speak about their achievements. Other research found that women who drew attention and awareness to their accomplishments had greater levels of career satisfaction and compensation growth than those who avoided making their success visible.
Encouraging self-promotion among female employees can also lead to huge benefits for organisations, as countless research has demonstrated the benefits of achieving gender parity and equality in the workplace. For example, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity financially outperform those in the bottom quartile by around 25%. Also, the Board Diversity and Effectiveness in FTSE 350 Companies report found that companies that had at least one female board member saw higher EBITDA margins after three years compared to those who without female board members. As such, recognising this bias and making women in the workplace feel empowered to self-promote should be a top priority for businesses as it can remove a key barrier to female career advancement and enable organisational success.
There are numerous ways to encourage female self-promotion in the workplace, including:
Cultivate - Ensure the women in your organisation feel valued. Research by Lindeman, Durik and Dooley found the most compelling explanation for women’s aversion to self-promotion was a desire to avoid backlash. As such, promoting a culture of psychological safety and one where employees feel that their contributions are valued and won’t incite backlash is key to enabling female self-promotion.
Develop - Invest in leadership training for employees. Leadership training can improve confidence and self-belief among employees, which can make them feel like their accomplishments are worth sharing. Also, investing in leadership training for all employees can encourage female self-promotion, as the importance of collaboration, empathy and growth can help to create an organisational culture conducive to women sharing their achievements.
Celebrate - Create a forum within your organisation where employees are encouraged to share their achievements. Setting up a designated time or place, for example in a monthly meeting, for one or more employees to share a recent achievement can also help to encourage self-promotion among women. Being placed in a setting where women are given an equal opportunity for self-promotion as their male colleagues’ will encourage this behaviour and will encourage others to engage in this practice in more natural settings throughout the workplace. This is because, as mentioned before, women are inspired by listening to other women discuss their achievements.
Finally, it is important to acknowledge that self-promotion varies not only across genders, but also across cultures. Realising the importance of this skill in the workplace and paying to attention to those employees who do not self-promote is also key to promoting diversity and inclusion in the workplace and to ensure the professional success and fair advancement of all employees.
Want to know more about empowering female leaders and creating a culture for self-promotion? Get in touch – www.prismlcc.com
