Be honest: Do you feel undervalued?
3 practical steps to get the recognition you deserve at work
Last month a LinkedIn post of mine went viral.
ICYMI I posted 👇 on Admin Professionals Day about the utter lack of recognition assistants get, and it struck a nerve.
Let me be clear: this is an issue that's bigger than recognition.
It's about a role that's evolved so significantly it needs a rebrand.
It's about corporate hierarchy.
It's about misogyny.
These are all topics I'll write about in time, and that I'm committed to using my voice to dismantle — but for today I want to focus on recognition.
A personal story
I know a thing or two about feeling undervalued — it was a top reason I decided to go out on my own and start Carve.
It’s a story too long to sum up here, but in short, I put my own needs last. (I know many of you do, and stay in roles out of loyalty.)
I regret that.
Maybe some of this resonates or feels familiar to you (please reply and share if you feel brave enough to.. I'd love to hear your story, confidentially).
But I learned a thing or two about recognition through all this that I want to share with you.
3 steps to get the recognition you deserve
Know that if you’re feeling undervalued, you do have agency to change the dynamic, at least to some degree.
I want to share with you today three practical steps that can help you feel recognized.
(Worth noting though that they're just a start, and they won’t fix the bigger, structural issues I mentioned above.)
Step one: ask for feedback
Pluck up the courage to share with your boss that you need positive feedback to feel happy at work.
There's a huge body of research that shows praise is the single biggest motivator at work (here's a favorite of mine). Maybe you can share this article with your boss as a conversation starter. Say it resonated, and it made you realise you've been feeling a little lackluster lately and that might be because you feel like a lot of the great stuff you do gets overlooked.
I'd also recommend asking for specific feedback regularly — both positive and negative, I mean.
This will show your boss you really care about continually improving, and more often than not will draw out praise you would have never gotten.
Here are a few pointers for making the ask:
Give them early warning: When we speak for our 1:1 on Monday, I’d love to hear any feedback you had on [project]
Probe for more specific feedback when you get a thank you: Fantastic! What stood out for you the most?
Don’t get defensive when you get critique. Know this is a natural fight or flight response! If you’re feeling emotional, defer: Thank you for sharing that. I’m going to reflect on it and let’s regroup in our next 1:1
Ask questions to get clear on the feedback: How would you have approached this differently? or: Could you give me some specific examples of that?
Step two: be your own publicist, shout about your wins
This isn't about fishing for compliments, or boasting.
It's about sharing the often invisible wins with your boss. Making them aware of things that have gone well, and issues you've handled proactively that they were never even aware of to begin with.
And it can be done subtly.
Some tactics to promote your own work:
If you use an agenda or report for your 1:1s, add a section for top wins -- this could be as basic as finally securing a meeting with that VIP you've been trying to book for months
Frame wins as learnings if that feels more comfortable: Top learning from last week was that adjusting the exec team weekly invite to include the rolling action log was a good call, two people reached out to thank me for doing this
Use data wherever possible: I managed to negotiate our offsite hotel contract down 22%, and they even threw in two room upgrades for us!
If you can, tie your wins to your boss’ goals or wider company goals: I know cost containment is a big theme for H2 2024 so I wanted to do my best to get us a great deal
Step three: capture + savor praise you get
Snippets from my personal power board
Create a power board for yourself. This is simply a repository of positive work moments you can look through when you need a boost.
This is really about holding onto those shreds of praise you get and mementos of your crowning moments at work and in life.
It could be physical or digital — for me it's a bunch of screenshots and pics saved in a folder on my personal drive.
It's a practice I started nearly 10 years ago now, and it's amazing to flick through and remind myself of many of my career highlights (also a good reminder of the power of tiny acts of kindness ❤️).
Let me know how it goes for you.
All my best,
Fi