No harm in blowing your own trumpet sometimes

In every sphere of life, we often see personal preference ruling over talent or merit. Since I mostly draw parallels from cricket, the immediate that I can think of is the selection of a non-performing Washington Sundar over Axar Patel and a low-on-skill high-on-attitude Harshit Rana over Md. Seraj in the ongoing ODI series between India and South Africa.

In the corporate parlance too, this is a common occurrence. I have witnessed this personally during my near-two decades of work experience, where people who perform and do the hard work often get ignored. The ones who tend to get preferred are the yes-mans (or womans) who are good at sweet talks, are friendly with seniors, or jump into praises for their bosses at the slightest pretext. This is not to say that talent or performance doesn't get its due, but they often take a backseat when it becomes a matter of personal preference for specific people.

To counter this, the people with merit can stick to letting their performance speak for themselves. Unfortunately, often that's not enough. So probably the need is to be a little vociferous and strategically speak/communicate about your achievements. It's almost like compelling the people who matter to sit up and take notice of the good work you have done. You may not be the kind of person who wants to blow the trumpet regarding your work, but it's a sour truth that this is how it works in today's professional workspace.