Great Work Never Speaks For Itself-It Whispers.

The Forgotten Art of Recording Your Impact

Great work never speaks for itself—it whispers.

In a world of noise, whispers go unheard.

I learned this lesson the hard way over 18 years at Amazon. I watched brilliant engineers get passed over for promotions while their peers advanced.

The pattern was always the same: They believed their work would speak for itself.

It didn't.

It's performance review season at Amazon. Everybody is trying to make progress on new initiatives for the new year, and many folks are making a mistake. They are putting off the work of self-reviews and giving peer feedback like cleaning out the garage—something that can always wait until next weekend.

The reason is because it's hard to be self-promotional. It's hard to give your manager and peers feedback. It feels awkward, maybe even a little shameless, to write about your own accomplishments. And perhaps most challenging of all, it's incredibly difficult to remember what you, your manage,r and coworkers did throughout the year.