Most of us don’t want to toot our own horns, it always comes off as a bit too arrogant and egotistical. And since we were kids, we’ve been taught that it’s bad (except for when we went through that Ayn Rand Fountainhead phase—everyone put up with our egoism then, because they knew it was just a phase.)
Here’s the challenge of lacking egotism in a workplace context: unfortunately, it’s too likely that others may miss your incredible accomplishments. And if you do incredible things, but no one notices—or no one realizes it was YOU who did it—then you won’t benefit from it.
Yet, you don’t want to be an egotistical a-hole! So, what do you do?
Here’s the solution I would recommend. You can never toot your own horn at just the perfect moment in the perfect way—no human, in fact, no machine—is that finely calibrated. You’ll either toot it a bit too much or a bit too little. And I’d definitely recommend erring on the side of tooting your own horn a bit too much. Compare the two edges. Either everyone thinks you’re a bit too egotistical, but they likely see the great work you’ve done. Or everyone thinks you’re a bit too humble, but they likely don’t realize the awesome contributions you make. Which one will get the promotion and the raise?
Within this framework, there are a few ways to toot your own horn that are slightly more subtle than emailing everyone, “Look at how amazing I am!” (which I would not recommend doing):
- Documenting and sharing the results of your work objectively. Not “this is my great work” but rather, “here is a summary of the outreach results from last week…”
- Crediting yourself along with others as well; including giving credit to other people for great work that has nothing to do with you. Said differently, talking about “me me me me” is more grating than, “Look at John’s great work, and Mary’s great work, and Michelle’s great work, oh and by the way, also, my great work.”
Here’s what you should try to avoid, if possible: the #HumbleBrag. When phrased in a way that obviously is too humble or disproportionately humble—then the attempt to downplay it will backfire.
Except in the cases of humor. You can #humblebrag if it’s funny. And that’s the genius of humor: if done well, it lets you say the things you want to say that you couldn’t otherwise say under normal circumstances. Maybe there is a way to toot your own horn in a funny way?
