Date: Saturday, January 23rd 2016

Participants (from 15 countries):

Host: Rick

Co-Host: Johny

Teams

Panel PRO (Team A): Tibi, Pham, Ganaa

Panel CON (Team B): Melika, Faten, Seif, Noorola

Audience (Team C): Johny, Amy, Flory, Lala, Taregh, Behnam, Rojhano, Marwa, Finda, Masato, Azamu, Reneesh, Mohiuddin, Ohnie, Jami

Team A summary:

Sometimes people do not have a degree but they have natural talent. So if they talk with their bosses with the purpose of letting them know that although they don’t have a degree, they can still do the job as well as any other person can, why not? Asking them for an opportunity to prove themselves will take them further then just staying silent and wait for a promotion to come by itself.
Giving ourselves visibility will allows us to obtain more opportunities.
It’s not what you think about yourself, it’s about what your boss think about you: In many work places, people depend on how their bosses see the employee; whether they show a positive attitude, or if they tell their bosses how eager they are to undertake new tasks and work.
In order to make sure your boss in looking at you for a position, job or promotion, you need to obtain as much visibility as possible and stand out from the competence.
The squeaky wheel gets the oil, if you don't make noise and make yourself visible, who is going to notice you?
In today's very competitive work environment, it takes more than just doing a good job, you need to let your supervisors know the job you are doing, and why you are important to them and to the company's success.
If you don't make yourself known, and "stay in the shadows", you will never be fully appreciated for what you do, that is just the environment we are in today.
Making yourself visible can be looked at as a way of showing initiative, and most employers value initiative.

Team B summary:

The most important thing is if you are competent in your work: if you perform your work well people are going to see it and notice it.
The bad side of showing ourselves off is that people start putting expectations on us: it can be too much pressure sometimes and if we fail to meet those expectations, they will feel disappointed in us.
If we “play it cool”, we can have more freedom and space to think about what we want to do; what opportunities that we want to seize and which ones to let go.
Sense of belonging: some people want to provide opportunities to others and work as a team. Giving other people the feeling they belong to a group would provide greater motivation and would allow them to accomplish bigger goals together.
Sometimes we need to give space to other people to fit in.
Many people would prefer to be known for the quality job they do rather than how well they speak of themselves.
There won’t be any advertising or self-promotion that will help if in the moment of truth, the person doesn’t do a good job.
When it comes to interviews and getting a job, there are two ways people get it: on one hand we have the people who can speak of themselves in such a way that it doesn’t matter if they have the skills, knowledge or experience to do the job. On the other hand we have people who have limited communication skills in which to promote themselves but they display a set of experiences, accomplishments, knowledge, studies and records that demonstrates that the person is qualified for the job.
There are people who are getting the job or position thanks to the connections they have. Meaning that there are other people who are talking well on their behalf so that the person will get the job. There are also people who are very skillful in what they do and always perform a good job but they are in the shadows, meaning that no one can see their job simply because they keep a too low of a profile. The point is that there should be a balance. We need to promote ourselves and couple our words with our actions: self-promotion and perform a good job.
Its the employers or supervisors responsibility to be the advocate for their employees, to know their performance. This is the sign of an effective leader or manager. If they are doing their job right as leaders or managers, they will notice the star performers on their own merit.

Questions Segment:

Tibi: “How can your boss know about you and your work when he is not watching you or even working on the same floor, department or building?”

Melika’s answer: “You should know your boss’ preferences, expectations and objectives. You should know why he hired you in the first place. Moreover, there are some bosses who if you go and tell them, ‘boss, I do a good job, please rise my salary’, then your boss most likely to tell you that if you are not satisfied with your current salary, you can go ahead and leave the job because there are others who would like to have it too.”

Seif’s answer: “If you do your work properly and efficiently, you would build a reputation, you would make your name have weight. So you wouldn’t have to speak about yourself since your name and reputation will speak for you.”

Ganaa’s rebuttal: “In order to move up in our jobs, we need to think like a boss and act like a manager. Despite all the points mentioned before, there is nothing wrong in self-promotion. If we know we are capable, then why not having something extra? Why can’t we take extra actions to ensure our success?”

Tibi built it up by saying that many people cannot afford to wait for our work to speak for ourselves. Many people need to rank up fast; some people cannot wait for life to gives us chances. Some people need to grab the bull by it horns and create their own opportunities. This can only be done if we take actions such as self-promotion.”

Noorola’s question: “Do you know who Stephen Hawking is?”

Team A’s answer: “Yes.”

His question, although a bit strange, seems to imply that some people became famous and known after building up their reputation based on the hard work they have done and by the accomplishments they had done over the course of their lives. In some parts of the world, some people do not have many opportunities to have visibility so the way they have to succeed is by working hard. A fact which would illustrate that is much more important the way we do our jobs as oppose to how much we speak about ourselves.

If you wish to inquire about Stephen Hawking, click HERE.

Johny’s Question for team B: “If your boss is not looking for promoting anybody, how would you convince him/her to promote you over the rest? In order words, if there are no opportunities, what can you do to change that?”

Faten’s answer: “I guess I would have to make use of some sort of self-promotion techniques. For example, saying what I have accomplished in the past, I am not going lie, but I would ask for a trial period where I can prove myself worthy. Overall, I’d want to know first whether I am able to do the job or not which for me is much more important.”

Noorola’s answer: “If I show I am very useful for my boss, I would show that I am worthy to stay in the company.”

Johny’s second question for team B: “What if everyone is also doing their job in the best possible way? How would you stand out from the rest and get the promotion?”

Faten’s answer: “for me, when a boss is looking for promoting someone, means that he/she is looking for a leader. And a leader for me is someone who can bring people together; someone who is listened to and respected by other people. Furthermore, it takes other people to show the talent, personality and skills you possess. It’s not just about you.

So when it comes to know what I would do when everybody else is also doing a good job, is to show what is different about me. Because anyone can do a good job but not everyone can be a good leader. I think most bosses when they look for promoting someone, they are looking for people who can lead, and not everyone can lead. ”

John’s third question for team A: “What if there is certain chain of command that you are tied to and cannot go directly to your boss and talk about you?”

Tibi’s answer: “I would make use of documents, emails, letters picture or whatever way I can to reach out that boss. I can also talk to the ‘right hand man’.”

Listen to the extract from the Host: “There are many ways to skin a cat” and “Many roads lead to Rome.”

Audience summary:

In some countries, people work their fingers to the bone but it’s all in vain. How much they get around their boss is what gives them promotions not their performance.
In a very competitive world, if we want to advance in our careers, is very important for us to be able to promote ourselves in a positive way. “Showing off” may not be a positive way to do so.
Doing a quality work in itself may not be enough if you are hated by everyone (in the work place); you would still not get the promotion you want.
If you work in a company, you are not working with just your boss; you’re working with a lot of other people, so you have to increase your visibility; you have to maximize your exposure. If you get a lot of positive feedback from the people around you, and if you have a positive relationship with them, then you’d be able to build a good reputation.
There are ways to promote yourself without stepping on someone else’s toes.
Sometimes the people working behind the curtains make the job more successful. Both actions are important and they complete each other.
Visibility is very important not only when it comes to jobs and promotions, also when it comes to doing business, selling products or opening stores. Advertising is a very powerful and sometimes necessary tool which is used to make people know about our products, stores or business.

Votes:

Johny chose team B
Flory remained undecided.
Lala remained undecided.
Taregh chose team A.
Behnam remained undecided.
Marwa remained undecided.
Finda remained undecided.
Masato remained undecided.
Azamu chose team B.

Team B won this debate. Thanks everyone for participating. Below are the links to listen to this discussion.

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Self-Promotion | Recording File | January 23th 2016