How to tastefully self-promote so your boss’s peers advocate for you behind your back

The Problem

At the end of each year, you likely think about your annual performance review. Perhaps you’re excited to increase your rating from last year, anxious about your score, or worried about layoffs. Maybe you’re all three at the same time. You took last week’s advice to proactively share an 8-bullet accomplishments document with your manager. However, you didn’t think about who else to influence. That’s a problem. 

Big Small Thing

Influence your boss’s peers in addition to your boss. Performance ratings and associated bonuses are rarely a unilateral decision made by your manager. Often, an entire leadership team is involved. When you make more managers aware of your accomplishments, you have a greater chance of several people advocating for you rather than just one. But there’s a tasteful way to do it and a shameless way to do it. Choose tasteful. Set up time with your manager’s peers to walk through the accomplishments document you wrote for your boss. Here’s how to finesse this for maximum impact.

❌ Open the meeting with, “I’d like you to put a good word in for me with my manager, so I get a better performance evaluation.”

✅ Start by saying, “I’d like to walk you through my accomplishments and how they benefited your team. It would be great to get your feedback on these bullets, so I can make them even stronger when I share them with my manager. (If they are impressed with your accomplishments, they will naturally advocate for you behind closed doors.”)

❌ Meet with all seven of your boss’s peers. That’s not necessary and might be eye-roll-inducing among your leadership team.

✅ Schedule time with the three whose teams you most impacted through your work, or pick the leaders with whom you have the strongest relationships.

❌ Meet with them the week that performance scores are due. This looks like you have ulterior motives. You do, but you can be graceful about it, especially because this meeting can truly be a win-win: this leader will benefit from understanding the joint impact you had with their team. 

✅ Meet with them 4-6 weeks before annual reviews are final. This is the right balance of close enough that you’ll be top of mind, but not so close that they think you only have one goal. Plus, it allows you to follow up on any feedback they give. They might say, “Your document looks great, but it’s too long; add an exec summary at the top.” Add that summary at the top and email them with a screenshot thanking them for the great advice. 

It’s important to get multiple leaders bought in on your annual impact because your work does not always speak for itself. If you don’t believe me, just ask a tree who falls in a forest with no one around. Or maybe you are bought in; perhaps you’re among the 57% who do believe you need to speak up about your work, but you haven’t yet considered who or how many people to tastefully tout it to. As unscientific as this is, here’s a LinkedIn poll I ran this past weekend. It’s fascinating that this is nearly a split jury! I’m biased, but I thought over 80% would disagree. 

How This Helps You Chase What You Want

If what you want during your annual review is a higher bonus, a promotion, or a raise, you need to get more people on board than just your manager. Leaders talk, managers ask their peers for feedback, and sometimes performance evaluation decisions are outright made by a committee. You want to tip the scales in your favor as much as you can during this important time of the year. It’s a moment that matters, so make the most of it. 

Let’s do this,

Jenny