Everyone working in an organization has seen unworthy executives advance up the corporate ladder while more competent candidates are overlooked. Why does this seemingly unfair situation occur over and over again?  It is because many dedicated and competent executives concentrate on doing their jobs to the very best of their ability but fail to promote themselves as valuable organizational members. In particular they pay little attention to a fundamentally important factor in organizational success: their personal ‘image’ - the impression of them that other people hold, made up from thousands of interpersonal interactions.  How to Sell Yourself gives guidelines on developing and managing one’s personal image. It illustrates how the “correct” image is rarely just a projection of one’s personality, but is more often purposefully designed, manufactured, and adapted to one’s position and to the culture of one’s organization.

在一个组织中工作的每个人都看到不称职的高管在公司的阶梯上晋升，而更称职的候选人却被忽视。为什么这种看似不公平的情况一再发生？这是因为许多有献身精神和能力的高管专注于尽其所能完成工作，但未能将自己提升为有价值的组织成员。特别是，他们很少关注组织成功的一个根本重要因素：他们的个人“形象”——他人对他们的印象，由数千次人际互动组成。如何推销自己为发展和管理个人形象提供了指导。它说明了“正确”的形象很少仅仅是一个人个性的投影，而更多的是有目的地设计、制造和适应一个人的职位和组织文化。