The Art of Working Loudly
Making yourself heard and getting ahead
I’ve been thinking about how I work lately. I’ve noticed that I do something that my colleagues don’t. I don’t remember when I learned to do it and I don’t remember it being a conscious decision, but I do it, and I know others do it who I respect. What is it? It’s what I call ”working loudly”.
What is “Working Loudly”?
In essence working loudly is talking about what you’re working on, making yourself heard, sharing your successes and celebrating others successes - but importantly it’s doing it without being arrogant or showing off. It’s doing it in person, but also on any remote working channels we have available to us.
If you have a teams channel, slack channel or another collaborative workspace then look at who posts the most. Look at who doesn’t post. I guarantee the people you admire will be posting often, regardless of role. Likewise the people who aren’t sharing or contributing regularly, I bet you wonder what they do day to day, right? How did they make it through their last pay review?
The concept of working loudly will sound scary to some people, especially introverts. When you describe it it sounds like I’m just talking about being a show off, so it’s important that you understand the difference. Here’s some tips to ensure you know what I mean:
Share your accomplishments and attribute reasons why your were successful - and offer to help others be successful. “I thought that RegEx issue was going to be really difficult for me, but I’m really pleased I got it sorted in less than a day in the end. I pushed myself out my comfort zone a little but I’m glad I did. If you’re trying to solve a tricky problem like that then I recommend using RegEx101 - Colin recommended I use that, thanks Colin! - if you’re unsure where to start with RegEx I’m happy to help, I’m not an expert so helping others will help me learn”.
The key here is showing some humility, offering to help others, and sharing the reasons for your success.
Share your failures as well as success. Working Loudly is not about shouting about success, it’s about working in the open. That means you’ll fail sometimes. If you don’t share the failures then the successes will just look like showing off. There’s also a second reason for sharing failures, and that’s because it’s really only in failure/mistakes that we learn anything - building up a culture of sharing failures and learnings as well as success is key to a health work culture.
Working Loudly is a way of working - it’s something you do all the time and it should feel natural. That means if you feel like you’re doing something too artificial or outside your normal voice, then slow down. Find your natural voice. Just talk about what you’re doing. Post more often on internal channels and hold yourself accountable to talking more about what you’re doing in meetings / stand ups. Build up to a level you are comfortable with - your aim is to work in the open eventually remember.
Ask questions and opinions. Get used to reaching out for help. If you’re wondering something then talk about it, either in a meeting or in our remote channels. Answer others questions, offer opinions. Just commit yourself to being more open about your work and opinions.
It doesn’t have to be about work. This may be controversial, but I believe you need to bring all of you to work to be successful. Share your personal milestones and set backs, talk about what a little shit your eldest was this weekend. Share the odd photo from outside work. Bring your whole self to work and people will respect you more as they get to know you, and what makes you tick.
Schedule sessions to talk about what you’ve done with stakeholders, and ensure you ask for feedback. Don’t wait to be asked to share what you’re working on, and don’t expect people to offer constructive feedback if you’re not asking. Make time for these meetings (just make sure they’re necessary and you’re not wasting the stakeholders time) and you will see the benefit. If you’ve built something that isn’t being used, find out why.
It’s not just about you. Take the time to big up others, give credit where credit is due.
Working Loudly is something that will come easier to some than others, it’s easier with confidence, and it’s easier with the confidence that being a white man brings too - I appreciate others are over-looked a lot more than me, and often need to work 10x more loudly to be appreciated.
With that in mind, this is about my experience and so I want feedback. Do you agree with it? Has Working Loudly helped you? or have you tried and failed? Let me know if the comments if you agree or not, or if you have any thoughts you have on Working Loudly.
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