At Relativity, our community resource groups (we call them CRGs, but you might also know them as ERGs) periodically host sessions called Culture Collectives for employees across the company to join.
During these events, an outside speaker educates attendees on wide-ranging topics relating to inclusion, diversity, belonging, wellness, professional development, and identity. The goal is to explore the rich diversity of identities and cultures that make up our company and the communities we serve.
Our March 2024 event was facilitated by AK Ikwuakor—also known as Coach AK—who is a high-performance executive coach, entrepreneur, former Top 10 world-ranked athlete, author, and was formerly the executive coach lead at Google.
The session was enabled through our partnership with Electives.io (a modern L&D platform that delivers live corporate training from interesting instructors). Coach AK hosted the Electives workshop for attendees hoping to foster growth in our careers while remaining true to ourselves. He provided a workbook to help everyone identify core skills, think through what makes us unique, uncover our primary motivations and power sources, and more.
Coach AK had a lot of great advice to share, but one framework that stood out to me—especially in the wake of promotion season, when emotions can be complicated—was related to how to advocate for yourself.
Whether you need it for deep-dive conversations at networking events or your next performance review, you can use this formula to talk about the impressive work you’ve done and push for recognition and growth as you continue to progress in your career.
Prework: Identify Your Strengths (and Your Path Forward)
Coach AK spent much of the workshop helping attendees identify our strengths, name the areas we’d like to invest in our growth, and understand our motivations. He also made one thing very clear: it’s crucial to focus on moving forward, not looking back.
“A GPS never asks you one question: where did you go yesterday?” he said. “Why not? Because it doesn’t matter. What’s the journey you want to start here, at this moment?”
So, in narrowing in on a focus area where we’d like to make progress, he encouraged us to examine our proficiencies in hard skills, soft skills, and how we can improve across both categories. He also talked about core values and how we tend to gather strength, especially when it comes to how we influence others in the course of our work.
For example, on an individual level, do you find a lot of strength and authority in your own knowledge and expertise? In your ability to establish trust with others? In your sense of integrity or courage?
And on an organizational note, do you exert influence based on your role or title? Your ability to build a strong network? The strength of your reputation?
Examining all these concepts is an important way to evaluate your current professional state, identify areas where you need to upskill, and pull from your strengths on your journey forward.
With all of this in mind, you should determine a specific focus area in which you’d like to grow and advocate for yourself more intentionally. What skill would you like to develop, or what goal would you like to vocalize with your leadership and start moving toward?
One of Coach AK’s pro tips for identifying a focus area? Balance the level of effort required with the level of potential impact on your career—and start with the low-hanging fruit (i.e., items that may have a significant impact without requiring a ton of effort). Doing so will be an efficiency boon, of course, but it will also provide you with the confidence boost you’ll need to build good habits, “show up” for your own goals, and see growth that will keep you motivated well into the future.
“Ninety-one percent of people who say they’re going to accomplish some goal, one year later, just haven’t done it. I don’t want you to be part of that 91 percent,” Coach AK told attendees during the Culture Collective workshop.
Finding a buddy—an accountability partner, a mentor, or simply a peer who shares similar interests and would like to join your effort—can help improve your odds of success.
“The number one thing I’ve learned is that this is about not just doing it by yourself, but doing it within a community,” he added.
Once you’ve put in the work, you absolutely need to be ready to give voice to your own successes. Don’t wait to be recognized; it may never happen. Instead, you must make your efforts known—to leaders, to recruiters, to whomever has the influence to help you move forward on the path you’ve set out for yourself—with confidence and joy.
Use Coack AK’s seven-part talk track—Link, What, For, Because, Outcome, Impact, Question—to tell your story and prompt the kind of conversation that will open doors for you. Here’s how it’s done.
1. Link
Begin by connecting the story you’re about to tell with a shared experience from the recent past. This link will change depending on who you’re talking to, but planning it out ahead of time will help you be more intentional.
For example, if you’re planning for a conversation with your manager, call back to a previous discussion about your development goals (you should have these frequently enough to make this easy!): “When we sat down to go over my goals for 2024, we discussed my interest in AI and how I’d like to get my arms around how it can help make legal work more efficient.”
2. What
Next, talk about what you did in response to that shared experience. What task have you checked off your to-do list in pursuit of your goals?
So, to either your manager or a peer, you might say: “Since then, I have completed a course focused on generative AI and its use in legal” (these sound informative!). “I’ve also started facilitating semi-regular workshops for our litigation team—featuring educational programming from our software and legal services partners—where we can learn together and discuss how we can leverage AI to work more efficiently …”
3. For
Point out who you’ve benefitted with your effort. It should be you, of course, but if you can have a positive impact on others, you’ll make a greater impression, improve outcomes on a bigger scale, and bring others along on your forward trajectory.
For instance: “… for our clients …” (this is often the best “for” in any service industry, but it’s especially good in the legal world).
4. Because
State clearly why this achievement matters—and has a positive impact on your “for.” Consider this the foundation of how you’ll answer that all-important “so what?” question, when asked how your self-advocacy story impacts others. What was your motivation for pursuing this goal, and why does its achievement matter to anyone else?
In our example, you might say something like: “… because they’re in need of more time and cost-efficient legal services. With data being as abundant and complex as it is for today’s enterprises, leveraging technology is the best way we can deliver on that demand.”
5. Outcome
Offer a proof point of your growth or positive impact based on this accomplishment. How can you articulate the importance of your work to a colleague or peer? Use numbers or other third-party validations whenever possible: objective evidence is going to be more compelling than theoretical or subjective feedback.
Looking at our generative AI story: “I completed the course, achieving X certification. Plus, Y percent of our team have reported interest in and attended at least one workshop so far.”
6. Impact
Here’s your chance to articulate how your accomplishment has put that “because” you mentioned earlier into action. Your colleague or peer has heard what you’ve done, why you did it, and how effective it was, but now’s your chance to make it feel real to them.
Consider laying it out like this: “As we’ve begun discussing this opportunity to evolve as a team, we’ve found that Z percent of our clients are interested in piloting these types of services with us. Additionally, nearly all of our litigation team members have expressed confidence that the use of AI will lighten their load of rote work and free them up to focus on more substantive, strategic tasks for our clients.”
7. Question
Conclude your story by putting the ball back in the other person’s conversational court. You’ll want to ask them a question that connects back to the very first piece of this talk track: your “link.” Then, engage with them and their answers to earn the recognition you seek—and set expectations for continued development.
For example: “Do you feel this has helped lay the groundwork for my development in this area? How do you think I can continue to balance my own learning with the firm’s need to improve our services for our clients?”
You Are Your Greatest Advocate (or Worst Enemy)
As Coach AK said during our workshop, “The ability to say ‘this is who I am and this is how I show up’ is the superpower you have that no one can ever steal. Sometimes the hardest person to be is ourselves.”
Owning your successes and speaking with confidence is a critical way to promote your own professional growth and development. Don’t be afraid to go for it!
Sam Bock is a member of the marketing team at Relativity, and serves as editor of The Relativity Blog.
