The pros and cons of awards
Plus, a poll for you at the end about the name of this Substack...
Do you enter awards for your work? Are you keen on winning them, do they bring a level of kudos to you and your career? Do you like the feelings that come with winning awards?
Or are you the kind of person who shies away from entering - too nervous to even contemplate putting yourself forward? It might be you're more in the middle, where someone nominated you.
Miley Cyrus proves that there is a huge amount of 'YES!' when you win, for so many reasons. It's a way of someone saying 'You're good at what you do' and that's never a bad thing. It's about being the best, which can often seem 'showy offy' but, wherever your feelings about awards lie, there are some clear reasons why they're good for your career...
🏆 Awards can open doors to new contacts and opportunities
Being shortlisted can see your name, face and company name on a website of a large organisation, and that's no bad thing! Entering awards has helped me build relationships, as well as connecting me with people who have become everything from a podcast guest to a good friend.
🏆 Losing builds resilience
There's no avoiding the fact that not winning an award can smart. We enter to win, right? Well, I do, and it's important to own that, I think. I don't enter because I don't want to win! Dealing with the 'feels' of losing out on an award can be a slow process, and losing can put us off entering any more awards. But I do also feel that entering awards is a key part of the great push and pull of our career journey. You might still be able to say 'shortlisted' which can be huge in itself (For example, shortlisted for the Booker Prize).
🏆 Winning is something you can harness!
If you are lucky enough to win, you then need to think hard about how that can help your career. Is there a winner's logo or promo material you can share on your profile? Where can you add it on your CV? Once the award is yours, can you leverage it to reach out to new clients, or for promotion?
🏆 They push us out of our comfort zone
With awards, it can feel like we're being self-indulgent, but I do believe they are a key part of work life. Entering awards is a good challenge to our comfort zone, and if you're self-employed, awards in your niche, industry and industry are a way of saying to clients - old and new - that you excel at what you do, and that you care enough about your work to enter it.
One caveat I've been told - and agree with - is to be careful when describing yourself as award-winning. You see, really, you should say the award. Eg Grammy Winning. If you won 'best new employee' at your company back in 2002, it might be time to apply for something new...
👋 Hi! I'm Jenny, I'm a Career Coach and I've been a journalist and writer for over 20 years. I work with people to help them get happier at work, whatever they do. Coaching can help with the confidence around awards and much more. Want to chat about it? Send me an email and we can set up a call.
This newsletter is called The Cardigan Brigade and is all about work, life and careers. If you’ve enjoyed it, do share it - click the button below
And now for the poll! This Substack began life as Freelance Feels. It’s now The Cardigan Brigade, named after what my dad would call HR.
I don’t quite feel it as a name. But what do you think?
A comment from someone in the awards business...
I've spent the last almost thirty years presenting awards, by which I mean being the Voice for awards events of all descriptions. It's called 'Voice Of God' which you must admit is a pretty cool job title...
There's an awards event every night of the week and for anything you could imagine, from my semi-detached viewpoint of siitting in the shadows at the back of the room most are occasions for a company-wide or industry-wide get together and that's fine.
I have a fairly jaundiced view of life in general, no surprise then that the actual award winners seem to me to usually be the big hitters who have time and people (and budget) to put in a good nomination - and of course there are cynical awards processes where it's a business proposition like any other.
But hey, it gives me a living and the actual ceremonies are usually fun to do - hard work but using such skillls as I have to good effect.
But then...about five years ago I made a radio programme that, for the first time in a forty year career, I thought was worthy of more recognition than merely my own satisfaction. So I entered it for an award.
And it's amazing how much it matters when it's your name on the nomination.
It came second (to one of the aforementioned big hitters), but they called that a 'silver award' so to this day I shamelessly use 'award winning' on my email signature.
Maybe that's stretching it slightly, but I think I got the best deal in getting 'silver' as I didn't have to go up on stage and have my photo taken which is a very uncomfortable thing for someone who doesn't do in-vision...