Self- Advocacy: Stepping into Your Power to Get What You Want

Advocating for yourself will always be important when you're looking to achieve anything in your life. Being an advocate for yourself means stating your needs and wants clearly and taking ownership of accomplishing your desires. Self-Advocacy is being proactive, allowing the people in your life to understand what you're doing and why, and can help set standards and expectations for yourself. Also, it opens the doors for others to help you with resources, connections, and guidance because they understand what you're working towards, especially at work. 

Putting Self in Self- Advocacy 

Part of advocating for yourself is being clear on what you want. Most of the time, you know what you want, but you might question or doubt it. If you find yourself unsure, you may need to gather more information through research and talking to people who can give you great insight. Also, think about other factors in your decision like knowing yourself. 

Understanding who you are at the core should also be taken into consideration. Having the self-awareness to accept information and apply it to your personality, goals, and needs is important in knowing what you're trying to achieve. Ask yourself if you're holding yourself back out of fear of change, disappointment, being too comfortable, etc. Being open and honest with yourself will assist in trusting the decisions you are making.    

Trust your inner voice is guiding you in the right direction. Yes, gathering information is excellent, but don't become so inundated with information that you question yourself too much. Listening to yourself is valuable in knowing what you want and going towards it. There will be people that will try to make you doubt yourself; no need to do it for them. Be confident in your decisions and know it's also okay to change your mind and potentially make mistakes. 

Advocating For Yourself 

Being clear on what you want, your value, and why it's important to you is a great first step. It helps you state your case clearly to management and stakeholders. When advocating for yourself, you may need a brag book of your accomplishments- projects completed, positive feedback from others (manager, executives, teammates, or clients), and other performance indicators (i.e., conference attendance, continued education, ERGs) to show. 

After clearly communicating what you want or need to the appropriate people, listen for feedback. It's great if they agree and say an emphatic 'yes.' Sometimes it might be a "yes, but.." or a "no." You will need to hear what they say and continue to state your case. Depending on how the conversation goes, pushing back at the moment is necessary, or you may need to ask for a follow-up discussion to revisit. 

No matter what feedback you receive, ensure you get the key points in writing afterward. Include in writing the next steps and things agreed upon, whether a recommended class or conference, revisiting the conversation in 3 months, new job expectations, etc. You want to be able to confirm and refer back to key discussion points and decisions from the conversation.

Keep It Moving  

After advocating for yourself, stand in your choice and recognize if it's being honored. There is a difference between someone helping and honoring your request and someone moving the goalpost of success and devaluing you. You don't need to beg or overly prove you're deserving. That's giving your power away. Instead, find another avenue that sees your value and is willing to assist you. This could be moving to a different department, find a new job, joining a supportive community, etc 

Make advocating for yourself a habit now. No matter where you are in life or how comfortable you are with doing it, know it takes courage at all levels. Continuously choosing yourself, seeing your worth, and expressing it to others gets easier the more it's done. You will never regret speaking up for yourself.

TL;DR

• Self- Advocacy starts with knowing and trusting yourself, then making a decision.

• Communicate clearly and confidently what you want, need, desire to the appropriate person.

• Listen to their feedback and email a follow-up on their response.

• Recognize when your request is being honored and someone is willing to help, and when it's time to find another avenue.

• Make advocating for yourself a habit.