Quick Lift: The PIE Formula: Why Performance Alone Won’t Get You Promoted

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Welcome to Loud and Lifted. I'm your host, Betsy

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Hamm. In this quick lift, we revisit my conversation

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with Linda Strange, my former business coach,

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to unpack how to master your pie. Performance,

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image, and exposure. Three ingredients that determine

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your career success. And I'm willing to bet you

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aren't as intentional about them as you should

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be. So let's dig in. Number one, performance

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is your foundation. You have to be great at what

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you do. It's the foundation before anything else

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matters that we're going to talk about. But here's

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the trap. Performance alone won't get you to

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the next level. Many women think if I just keep

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delivering, I'll get noticed. And that's not

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true. I've seen this happen time and time again

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with women in my career, especially younger women.

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They come into an organization and they put their

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head down and they grind it out and they're working

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crazy hours and accomplishing a lot, but nobody

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knows what they're doing. So performance is important.

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And like I said, that's really the foundation.

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It's table stakes. Nothing else matters if you're

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not good at what you do, but There's more to

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the pie that we have to dig into. So action item

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here, though, is to evaluate your performance.

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I'm sure many of you receive performance reviews

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on the regular or feedback from your manager.

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But if not, ask for feedback. Ask for feedback

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on your strengths and improvement areas. Don't

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guess and then identify one skill gap that you

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can close in the next 90 days. Number two. Image

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is your brand. It's how others perceive you.

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Now, what's included in image? It's your appearance,

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of course, but it's also your communication style,

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your professionalism, and your presence. This

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affects more opportunities than you think. And

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here's the truth, your image is already being

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crafted in people's minds. If you're not shaping

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it intentionally, Someone else's this really

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ties into what we talked about with Jill to with

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executive presence. It's how you show up It's

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how you're in the room. It's what people say

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about you when you leave the room How do people

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describe you are you described as somebody who

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is? Collaborative and optimistic and a problem

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solver and a team player or do you leave the

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room and people are like, oh, thank you Goodness,

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she is such a pain in the ass. She's so negative.

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She's not collaborative. She's defensive. When

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you give feedback, you have to know what people

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are thinking and or saying about you when you're

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not in the room. And you need to be really thinking

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about this in different areas of how you're showing

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up on an online meeting. Do you have your camera

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on? Are you present? Are you engaged? As well

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as if you're in a conference room or you're in

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a team meeting, how are you showing up and what

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is your image that you're portraying when you're

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are in those situations. Action item here is

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ask people that you trust at work who you know

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will give you honest and real feedback. Don't

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ask somebody who's just going to say things to

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be nice, but ask your peers, your coworkers,

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maybe even your boss five words to describe you

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and then compare those words that they said to

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what you want to use. Linda gave a very good

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example of someone who did this, who had very

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positive words and it was things like being kind

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and nice and collaborative. Great words, right?

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We want people to say that about us, but the

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words that weren't used were words that she was

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striving to be because she wanted to be a leader

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or a manager and have people report to her. So

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that gave her really a path to focus on some

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of those other words that weren't showing up

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on her list. Now you may do this exercise and

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words that you don't want on your list. are there

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and then that's something that needs to be addressed.

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So sometimes they may be aspirational words that

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you want added to your list and sometimes you

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may get feedback of words that you don't want

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on your list and then you can work towards that.

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So that's your action item is get those five

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words from your co -workers. Number three exposure

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is your amplifier. It's not about shameless self

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-promotion. It's about making sure the right

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people know who you are, what you do and the

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value you bring. You can't wait for someone else

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to shine a light on you. It's too risky. I often

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say, does your boss know what you... But more

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importantly, does your boss's boss know what

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you do or somebody else above you in the organization?

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I loved Linda's example about the Broadway stage

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versus the community theater. So Broadway stage,

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her example was, you know, maybe there's a big

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corporate event. Maybe there's a town hall meeting

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where there's people who you don't typically

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run into or work with from a leadership perspective

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that you have exposure to. So take that opportunity

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to sit beside somebody new, to introduce yourself,

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to ask questions to someone that you're sitting

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beside. just set aside somebody new and then

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not engage with them. But make sure at those

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Broadway stage opportunities, you're getting

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outside your comfort zone and you're talking

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to people that would be important to help influence

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your network and your exposure. The other piece

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that she talked about was the community theater.

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And I love this because it's every day, right?

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You have the opportunity to get exposure every

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day. And it's sometimes in those smaller options.

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It could be in the lunchroom actually making

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conversation with a vice president that you don't

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really have any reason to work with, but letting

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them know who you are and that you exist. Those

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little conversations and giving yourself exposure

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to people even in a social setting really go

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a long way. The other piece of exposure is LinkedIn.

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Again, another great not only networking opportunity,

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but an opportunity to promote yourself, what

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you're working on, what's going on, or maybe

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even your company if that's more comfortable

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to start off with. There's a lot of opportunity

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for exposure. probably every day, no matter what

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your work environment is, but think about how

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you can be more intentional with your exposure.

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Action item for exposure is identify three people

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either in your organization or in your industry

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who need to know your work and then set a plan

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to connect. Again, reaching out via LinkedIn,

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reaching out via an email. I talked about when

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on Linda's episode how, you know, people within

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my company were very good sometimes about reaching

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out and it could have been sending an email about

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saying, Hey, thanks so much that the company

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is doing this or thanks for holding this event

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or whatever it is You don't have to start off

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with a big self -promotion elevator pitch Although

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you should be ready for elevator pitch that might

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have to be a conversation for another day, but

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It's being intentional about making those connections,

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networking relationships. Number four, you can

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fix your pie at any stage. If one slice is lagging,

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you can rebalance it. Now we talked about performance.

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Image, I will be honest, is probably the hardest

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slice to change dramatically if you feel like

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you're not headed in the right direction, but

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it's just taking baby steps. Maybe you need to

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address some items that need to be repaired.

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Maybe it's relationships. If it is something

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like you go, into meetings and you present and

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you get really defensive and now you have a bad

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reputation about that figure out how you can

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work on that what are those triggers sometimes

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a lot of those triggers can negatively affect

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our image so it's identifying those and again

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baby steps you're not going to be perfect every

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day breaking news none of us are so identify

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what you need to work on whether it's with your

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performance or your image and I'm sure your exposure

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needs some work and then make a plan to be intentional

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about addressing that I've said it before, and

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I'll say it again. Pi is one of the most important

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career lessons you can learn. I even talk about

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it to my own teens. They love it so much. But

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it matters everywhere. It matters at their age

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in school, and it matters in sports, and it definitely

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matters in your career. Success isn't just about

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doing excellent work. It's about making sure

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the right people see the work, know your value,

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and view you as someone worth investing in. So

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be intentional. Protect and grow your performance,

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image, and exposure. And when you do, your career

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will move in the direction you want it to go.

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If you haven't listened to Linda's full episode,

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I strongly encourage you to check it out. And

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if this quick lift resonated with you, please

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share it with a friend and follow us on Instagram

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for more practical career tools. Until next time,

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stay loud, stay lifted, and keep showing up with

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a powerful image.