I was meant to meet with a good friend from university days over the Christmas holiday but the weather here has been so bad that I had to cancel. I was really disappointed as she now has 2 lovely children and I was looking forward to seeing them too but we arranged to chat on the phone when she got back home. I have just got off the call. She took on a challenging new role in her organisation earlier this year and she is really enjoying it. It plays to her strengths and recognises her experience in the sector.  She was “headhunted” internally for this job. 

I then came to my desk and found this video by Scott Belsky with the title “Don’t let your genius go unnoticed” .

Where my friend was at an advantage was that inside her organisation people were noticing and talking about her “genius”. Although she filled one role they could envisage her in another, different one - calling on her existing strengths and with confidence that she could learn what ever else would be needed.

For many people though this just does not happen. It could be for any number of reasons but the strong message is that

we owe it to ourselves to make sure that others notice what we are good at so that what we can offer is not overlooked.

Here in the UK ( an even more so in Scotland) talking about ourselves and what we are good at is often criticised. Possibly the people doing the criticising are stuck themselves - I don’t know.

But - as Scott says in the video - it is our responsibility to find ways to show our strengths and talents. It might be with an advertising or marketing campaign , it could be by using social media, or indeed you might seek out opportunities to show your strengths in the workplace or to your clients or potential clients.

So if you blame your boss for not noticing you or despair at the lack of clients buying your product or services why not take some time to think about what you want to be recognised for - and then do something about getting noticed!