Its time to go after awards and recognition

It's time to go after awards and recognition It's time to go after awards and recognition I have a question for you.What kind of impact could you make as a  known expert?Follow Ladders on Flipboard!Follow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!A big question, I know.Maybe you’re just finding out what you want to be known for. Maybe you’re already a go-to person in your department or company. But who knows about your expertise outside company walls?An expert is a person with  authoritative knowledge or superior skill in a particular area. They stand out because they’re publicly sought out for their wise judgment and broadly seen as a reliable source of information. Often, they have a slate of awards and external recognition burnishing their personal brand.We all want more of this special “expert” quality, right?!The mindset we hold is critical, as it can either steer us toward expertise-elevating activities like awards and external recognition or cause us to bypass them completely. We conducted a Be Leaderly “Quick Poll” with over 200 respondents, and found that professionals we queried were most likely to hesitate to go after awards or other external recognition due to  discomfort self-nominating.Biggest hesitation to seek out an award or other external recognitionWe also assessed what makes professionals most  motivated after awards and recognition. It turns out professionals are most motivated when a manager encourages them to go after a given award.Most motivating factor to go after awards and recognitionDirecting your own path to expert status may mean listening and looking for career-making opportunities, broadening the platform that you’re best known for or self-nominating more often. Expert-building recognition comes in all shapes and packages. Within our Be Leaderly community, these are just some of the awards that people hold:   40 Under 40   Women of Influence   Emerging Leader Award   Rookie of the Year   Distinguished Engineering Educator Award   Top Women in Grocery   Company Values Award   Women of Achievement   Diversity in Business Award   Engineer of the yearWhat’s holding you back from seeing yourself as more of an authority in your field? And let me ask you once more,  what kind of impact could you make as a  known, award-winning expert?Join our 2019  webinar series  and gain immediate access to our webinar, 7 Steps to Becoming a Thought Leader. Hear stories and strategies on positioning yourself as an expert. We talked about how to get clear on your niche, craft your story, identify and go after opportunities, and then promote your fierce expert status.This article first appeared on Be Leaderly.    You might also enjoy… New neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happy Strangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds 10 lessons from Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule that will double your productivity The worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs 10 habits of mentally strong people