Not getting recognition at work? That's tough. Whether you're an employee, freelancer, contractor, or even a partner in a company, it can be demoralizing. It also gets in the way of advancing your career and earning more.
Is self-promotion the answer?
Yes. Sort of. But there are a few prerequisites.
1. You must have the work you're performed tied to value you're delivering to the organization and individual evaluating you. Don't be a commodity.
2. The person evaluating you must like and trust you. Or at least, respect you.
3. Then, and only then, will some tactful self-promotion pay off.
Let's go a little deeper --
1. You're not coming across as a commodity, are you?
Being commodified is near-fatal for being recognized. The thought is, "Don't make too much noise, don't take too much of my time, I don't want to pay you too much, and get it done fast." When you're commodified, you don't earn well, you don't get respected, and you don't have much say in the matter.
The way out of this is to find the value that your service really delivers. If you were setting up IT, don't focus on sync'ing, intranets, and a great email provider. Focus instead on people really enjoying their computers (instead of hating them), focus on getting more work done (and pleasurably), focus on the headaches the people had before and how you're solving them, and focus on increased productivity and profits.
You can only get this information through asking smart questions. If you take an order for work without diving into why they really want it done then you're stuck in commodity-land. The more you dive in and deliver on the points the matter to the buyer/decisionmaker, the better off you are.
Two notes on that topic: first, you need to find what the individual evaluating cares about in addition to the organization. Sometimes it can be very different. This can be accomplished with questions like, "And what do you want to see, personally, out of this project? Why did you take this assignment on? How will you be evaluated?" This is very important when dealing with someone who is part of a larger organization.
Second note -- some bosses or clients only want commodity work, and do not have the sophistication, nuance, or ambition to appreciate higher level work that's executed masterfully. The answer is to get better clients (or a better boss).
2. Does the person you're working with like and trust you?
It's a frequent mistake that people make when establishing themselves. They want to "get right down to business." But sometimes, it makes sense to take a little longer to get to know and like the people you're working with.
If you're an anonymous name or face in the crowd, you're very unlikely to be appreciated. People just don't work like that. People care about the professional success of people whom they also care about the personal success with.
This isn't to say you should schmooze with people you dislike. Rather, you should start narrowing how and where you work so you incredibly like the people you're working with. If you saw "networking with clients/boss/whatever" as difficult, you'd burn out quickly if you tried. But if you genuinely enjoy and respect the people you work with, it becomes a no-brainer to go to sports matches, go out to eat and drink together, do adventure sports together, even vacation together with your families. If you don't have this kind of relationship with your clients, where you'd be downright excited to to hang out for a few more dates after a grueling work-marathon together, then you need new clients. You can't compartmentalize your life into "people you like" and "people you work with" -- unless you want to be miserable (and underappreciated).
(Also note that most people don't have this dynamic with the people they work with. Also, most people don't enjoy their work. And most people aren't highly paid. Correlation isn't causation, but maybe something is going on here...)
3. Then, tactfully self-promote.
Self-promotion gets a bad rap, but the fact is, most work is somewhat invisible. When things "just work" it isn't always obvious it took 15 hours to get it that way.
If you've never been involved in throwing an event before, for instance, it's hard to know quite how much work goes into it. Even a small-gathering takes many hours of tiny logistical details beforehand to make it go smoothly, and cleanup and consolidation afterwards. And things very often go wrong and need to be dealt with deftly by the host and their team.
Self-promotion can be tacky, so make it not tacky. A couple ways to do so are to make behind-the-scenes looks at what's happening, and make relevant documentation materials for future use.
Behind-the-scenes videos, updates, processes, and inside-looks are exciting for people and are valuable for people who want to understand what you do. Putting together a case study or behind-the-scene look takes a lot of time if you do it separately, but isn't too prohibitive if you do it simultaneously with what you're doing.
Documentation also helps. When someone sees that the documentation for throwing an event is 15 pages long, it's all incredibly relevant with no fluff, etc, it makes people realize how much actually goes into it that they never thought of.
Don't forget to put the name of yourself and especially the key team members who were part of it. Give lots of credit to the people who, for instance, decorated, handled any lights/audio, helped with setup and cleanup, and so on. If you have external partners (caterer, bar staff, etc) then feature them heavily and give them copies of the materials, as well as a reference for their boss and future clients (if they did a good job).
You need to self-promote, yes, but you should make all your self-promotion valuable for other people involved as much as yourself. Having your name on materials is much less valuable than taking great care of everyone that was involved alongside you -- and if you treat people really well, they'll speak about you for ages afterwards. I've written tons of reference letters in my life, and I'm constantly surprised how often I'm getting asked if they're still relevant and getting inquiries about those. Most people simply won't spend the 5-10 minutes after a project to consolidate and appreciate the key people they did it with, even though that last step accounts for so incredibly much in terms of how it's remembered by key people involved.
Recap
If you're not being enough recognition at work, it's probably because...
1. You didn't tie what you're doing to the end-value that the relevant people/organization wants. You don't do graphic design; you make the firm look super professional, help them win more business from their competitors at higher fees, and make the person giving out their card or writing on the letterhead feel powerful and prestigious. Deliver value, not commodities.
2. You're not liked, respected, or trusted on a personal level. You've got to want to be friends and enjoy the company of the key people you work with. If you don't legitimately want to spend time with people you work with after work hours, you need to change jobs, roles, or get transferred. When you loooove the people you work with, it's easy to build great personal relationships. And it's hard to have great work relationships without great personal relationships.
3. And then, did you promote the work enough? If you don't self-promote, rest assured that no-one else will. Everyone is busy. Highlight what you did, in a way that's also valuable to the busy people involved. Liberally give credit and highlight the contributions of everyone involved, create interesting behind-the-scenes footage, or create documentation and procedures to make things go smoothly next time -- which also shows how much you accomplished. A quick recap summary or report might also be in order, depending on the field.
Alright, now stop selling commodities, build some value, make sure you love the people you work with, and make sure you promote what you all accomplished together -- that's easier said than done, but a nearly guaranteed formula for success.