You're sitting in your office, and you're getting on with your work. You could be writing a report, crunching some numbers or bashing out email after email, making sure you're doing a good job. You hope your hard work is recognised by your boss, but you don't think so - they're too busy, they've got no time for you...and you just want to be noticed.

Sound familiar?

Believe it or not it's a feeling felt by most workers, not just introverted people. However, what is clear is that most introverted people don't feel comfortable showing off. They don't feel comfortable telling their boss "how great they are". But you don't need to do either to show your boss your skills. Here's five simple things you can do to get ahead at work without much effort.

#1 - Have a positive attitude!

The first and most important point here is to keep a positive attitude at work. With so many people going to work each day with a horrible attitude you can stand out if you go about your day positively. Be prompt, or even early, and you'll show you're committed without saying a word. Dress smartly, and you'll show you care about yourself and how you represent your work. Be diligent and hit deadlines and sign-off your emails with thanks. You don't need to buy your boss's affections - just do your job well and with style.

#2 - Make the most of meetings

Most 360 degree feedback surveys show that the introverted personality style dislikes the impromptu. As such, company or client meetings can be very daunting - yet they're an essential part of working life. However, you don't need to show off in them if you do some planning. Take some time to write down what you will say so that you are clear about your message and goals. If there's a meeting agenda, study it. Work out who will be in the meeting and what they're objectives will be. If you can head off their points with some well-reasoned arguments, you'll shine without showing off.

#3 - Be the peacemaker

Workplaces put people together from all different backgrounds, so its no surprise that arguments often happen. You can use your skills in listening to help resolve disputes between people when they happen and be the peacemaker. According to employee surveys, introverts are great at listening to both sides of an argument and assessing things internally. With your calm head you can resolve problems and stop them escalating to your boss - they'll be thankful for it.

#4 - Take on the newbie

Whilst extraverts love the spotlight, introverts are often the opposite. Rather than hog the limelight, they like nothing more than to share in success. This type of trait is perfect for developing others, getting them to come up with ideas and allowing them to take on more responsibility and really develop. How useful is that for your boss when they hire a new person? Rather than shy away from them, drop your boss an email - or even better speak to them - and ask if you can help develop their skills.

#5 - Social media success

With the rise of social media and popularity of Facebook and Twitter, more and more businesses are getting involved. Social media is a great way for businesses to boost their brand awareness, give good customer service, show off new products and direct people to its website. What better way than to suggest to your boss that your business get involved and you take on the management? It'll help you become the 'online face' of the business, without having to shout from the rooftops. And the more friends, followers and maybe sales you get, the more your boss will be pleased!

So there you have it - 5 simple steps to show your boss your skills without having to show off. You don't need to shout from the rooftops to get noticed, it just takes a little thought. Why not give these tips a try and see what happens! Good luck!

How to Show Your Boss Your Skills Without Showing Off by Guest Blogger ETSplc is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

Flickr photo by Mike Baird

Regardless of whether you are marketing online or in-person, a product or a service, something that costs $1.00 or $10,000 USA, there's going to be a time somewhere that you will make a presentation.

This week's guest blogger has some tips when that guest speaker is you.

Five Great Tips for Guest Speakers

If you’ve been chosen as a guest speaker for a business event or conference, the first thought some of us might have is 'How am I going to do this?'. Talking to our peers about our expertise can be a daunting prospect, so here are five fail safe tips to keep your audience engaged and to keep you in control.

1. Keep calm
Getting up on stage in front of hundreds of people can cause many of us to panic, and when we panic, we don’t make the best speakers. Remember to keep calm: breathing techniques are important here, so practice simply taking a deep breath in through your nose, holding for a beat, and breathing out through your mouth. Simple, but very effective.
2. Remember who is in charge
You have been asked to be a guest speaker because the audience, the organisers and your peers believe you are the authority on this subject. Don’t forget that they want you to be there, so enjoy the opportunity to talk about your knowledge and experience! Think about what you love so much about the subject you are presenting on, and make sure that is conveyed to the audience.
3. Don’t look down
There’s nothing worse than a speaker who looks at their notes, mumbles and never makes eye contact. While you don’t need to stare deeply into the eyes of everybody in the audience, remember to cast your eyes over the audience’s heads to ensure that they connect with you on both a verbal and visual level.
4. Practice, practice, practice
Spending an hour or two in the week before the conference practicing what you’re going to say, your timing and the order of your presentation is very important. If you feel comfortable with what you’re going to say, so will the audience. Practice your timing with slides before the event to make sure that everything runs smoothly.
5. And finally, don’t rely on anything but yourself!
Having a few notes or verbal reminders on your presentation slides is very helpful, but make sure you don’t rely on them too much. The audience want to hear what you’ve got to say, not read about it on a bright screen that’s too far away. Use visual and written cues to help you stay on track during your presentation, rather than letting them become restrictive.

Author Bio: Joel Harrison – Editor at www.b2bmarleting.net bringing marketers together in an online community

Five Great Tips for Guest Speakers by Guest Blogger Joel Harrison is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

These are great tips to effectively email people you want to correspond with, and these tips are great for establishing contact with anyone. Don’t forget sometimes when people don’t answer email, it is best to pick up the phone and give them a call. Some people just aren’t that into internet communication, and will, unfortunately for some of us introverts, demand for phone time to talk.

It's an art

First off, writing the perfect email is an art. You want to make it concise, articulate and friendly. It is easy for me to list these aspects, but it is much harder to balance all of them. How exactly does someone be brief without coming across as terse? It is not a simple question to answer, and it will vary from situation to situation. Of all those, being brief is the most important. Imagine that you have 100’s of email to answer a day, you don’t want to deal with someone who is taking their time at getting to their point.

Read it twice

Due to the complexity of sending an email that will get a response, you will want to revise and proofread. This will also avoid making grammatical errors that make it difficult for the reader to understand what you are trying to communicate. If the reader doesn’t understand what you are trying to say, it can be difficult for them to respond. Frequently, if you are unclear in your message the recipient of your email will feel like you couldn’t be bothered to think out what you wanted from them exactly.

Find the best moment

Timing is key on email. Sometimes people are busy and other days they are not. On the less busy days they are much more likely to want to correspond then days when they are swamped. If you don’t get a response from an e-mail it can be good to follow-up with another email asking the persons availability. Sometimes people need reminders and a little bit of nudging for them to put your e-mail in their to-do list. Don’t email obsessively, but maybe try a different time of a day or a different day of the week.

Research the person

Beyond composing and sending the email, you want to know about the person you are email. Do your homework! There is nothing more rude then trying to interview someone, and not knowing basic information about them. This tells them that you couldn’t spend the time to google or research them. Also, like most things in life, “please” and “thank you” go a long way. Make sure you show your gratitude for the person willing to dedicate sometime to answering your email.

LookupExpert is one of the most recommended email finder services.

Art, proofreading, timing and researching - all within the introvert preferences. Which one tip or which tips resonate most to boost your courage?

The Secrets to Emailing Important People is a post from: Courage Coach for the Reluctant Marketer

This is a common problem with working from the home office: how to get people to understand it is work time. But what if you have talked and explained with little to no results.

I found something that worked for some of my salespeople who worked in a bull pen: devise a signal that makes it so clear that you do not want to be disturbed. One of my salesman put a traffic light on his desk that he found in a novelty store. The red, yellow and green lights said it all. One of my coaching clients had a payroll clerk who couldn’t get employees to leave her to her work – even on pay day! She devised a sign that she flipped over as needed: one side said Knock lightly; the other said, DON’T even think about bothering me. In any cases where we create a signal, discussion and agreement with people was crucial before the new actions took affect.

Would it be any help if you could get your spouse to help you with setting some ground rules for him and the rest of your family? Often times getting people to be part of the process is enough of a kick-in-the-pants because THEY created the rules with you.

Have you tried a Family Summit where you bring in all family members to participate in a planning of how to make your work life and their life better with some Work Day rules? This would mean that you are clear on hours of work, what to expect when you take a break, agreed upon signals, etc

What are you doing that might be rewarding unwanted behavior? This may sound silly. When I was traveling the world doing management training we often talked about this issue. Here’s an example. What is one of the first things that happens when you bring a puppy home? House breaking. The puppy pees on the floor. #1- you ignore it – the pee continues. #2- you pay attention and take the puppy outside the moment you catch them in the unwanted behavior. Could it be that some of your family members are getting rewarded either by you ignoring them (eg, they LIKE being ignored) or maybe you are ALWAYS paying attention to them in some way, good or bad, when they interrupt you? We sometimes reward unacceptable behavior unknowingly.

Is the location of your office wrong? If it is near the family room or living room it’s inviting, even with a door, to be fair game to come in and break your privacy. If you have a door, is it shut?

Have you talked with other women in your community who might work at home to get some ideas? As an introvert, if you are, it’s so tempting to work in complete isolation with just the ideas bouncing around our heads, we often forget to get an outside opinion.

Bottom line: You want to find a way to get the family involved in the boundaries YOU want so you can reward them at the end of YOUR workday for respecting you.

If you work from home, would you let us know how you are able to successfully minimize family interruptions?

How do you minimize family interruptions when working from home? is a post from: Business Sales Coach for Introverts and Shy

This is a common problem with working from the home office: how to get people to understand it is work time. But what if you have talked and explained with little to no results.

I found something that worked for some of my salespeople who worked in a bull pen: devise a signal that makes it so clear that you do not want to be disturbed. One of my salesman put a traffic light on his desk that he found in a novelty store. The red, yellow and green lights said it all. One of my coaching clients had a payroll clerk who couldn’t get employees to leave her to her work – even on pay day! She devised a sign that she flipped over as needed: one side said Knock lightly; the other said, DON’T even think about bothering me. In any cases where we create a signal, discussion and agreement with people was crucial before the new actions took affect.

Would it be any help if you could get your spouse to help you with setting some ground rules for him and the rest of your family? Often times getting people to be part of the process is enough of a kick-in-the-pants because THEY created the rules with you.

Have you tried a Family Summit where you bring in all family members to participate in a planning of how to make your work life and their life better with some Work Day rules? This would mean that you are clear on hours of work, what to expect when you take a break, agreed upon signals, etc

What are you doing that might be rewarding unwanted behavior? This may sound silly. When I was traveling the world doing management training we often talked about this issue. Here’s an example. What is one of the first things that happens when you bring a puppy home? House breaking. The puppy pees on the floor. #1- you ignore it – the pee continues. #2- you pay attention and take the puppy outside the moment you catch them in the unwanted behavior. Could it be that some of your family members are getting rewarded either by you ignoring them (eg, they LIKE being ignored) or maybe you are ALWAYS paying attention to them in some way, good or bad, when they interrupt you? We sometimes reward unacceptable behavior unknowingly.

Is the location of your office wrong? If it is near the family room or living room it’s inviting, even with a door, to be fair game to come in and break your privacy. If you have a door, is it shut?

Have you talked with other women in your community who might work at home to get some ideas? As an introvert, if you are, it’s so tempting to work in complete isolation with just the ideas bouncing around our heads, we often forget to get an outside opinion.

Bottom line: You want to find a way to get the family involved in the boundaries YOU want so you can reward them at the end of YOUR workday for respecting you.

If you work from home, would you let us know how you are able to successfully minimize family interruptions?

How do you minimize family interruptions when working from home? is a post from: Business Sales Coach for Introverts and Shy

As an introvert sometimes I enjoy bringing in guest bloggers as you see on occasion. It's such an occasion today. I met Sierra on one of my online blog communities. She writes clearly and succinctly. We agreed on the broad topic of - communication in the workplace for introverts.

Most scientists believe introvertedness is a genetic trait. With a little effort though, you can add some extrovert tendencies to your introvert nature in the workplace and fit in well with you more extroverted coworkers. Even though you may have tendencies toward introvertedness, even shyness, do not allow them to keep you from pursuing professional or personal goals. Following are several tips to help you communicate more effectively in the workplace.

Find Your Strengths

Everyone has unique qualities and things they are good at. It is important to know and focus on the things you do well. In the workplace, this is especially true. Working at a job you are good at will improve your self-esteem and allow you to play to your strengths in the workplace.

Focus on Others

Instead of focusing on yourself during conversations with coworkers, focus on what they are saying. Become interesting in learning about them. Ask them questions about themselves. Extroverted people will often find it rude if you don't reciprocate their interest and make conversation occasionally, so make an effort to reach out to them even if it feels awkward to you.

Practice Social Skills

As with any other skill, social skills can be refined with practice. The more you work at it, the more comfortable you will be the next time. If you have difficulty coming up with how to say things to your coworkers, practice what you want to say with them ahead of time. Extroverted coworkers are the perfect people to learn better social skills from. Observe how they interact with you and others around the office, then reciprocate these friendly gestures.

Make Contact with Others

Each day make it a point to talk with one or two of your coworkers. Whether for a few minutes as you arrive in the morning or in the break room for a snack, each time you make contact, you build rapport with your coworkers. It is important to develop relationships in order to get to better know your coworkers.

Speak Up at Meetings

It is easy for introvert workers to sit during meetings without speaking at all or only when being spoken too. Ask questions to show you are interested. Speak up to let your coworkers know you have helpful ideas.

Make Eye Contact

It is sometimes harder for introverts shy people to make eye contact. But force yourself to look your coworkers in the eye when talking with them. This will give the impression that you are friendly, trustworthy and confident. If you do not make eye contact, your coworkers could think you are being unfriendly or have something to hide.

Remember, with time and practice, you can work toward becoming the friendly, helpful coworker that others enjoy working with. You will feel more confident in both your professional and personal life.

It starts with you using your strengths. What do you think about just mixing in some extroverted tendencies? Does it make sense for you?

This article was contributed by Sierra Miller from Job Descriptions. The introverts out there might suited to some of the careers discussed in her IT job descriptions.

Introvert Tips for Communicating with Extroverted Coworkers is a post from: Business Sales Coach for Introverts and Shy