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To Brag or Not to Brag? That is the Question
20 Plays2 days ago
We're tackling the age-old question: “Whether ’tis nobler to suffer in the mind or take up arms against our troubles!” Just kidding—we hosted another book club! This time, we’re reviewing "Brag: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It" by Peggy Klaus. We explore the concept of bragging, its role in the corporate world, and the cultural nuances of self-promotion. Tune in to hear how we can talk about our accomplishments in a genuine and balanced way, reflect on our internal soliloquy around bragging, and apply the advice shared by Peggy.
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Transcript
Introduction to Book Club Discussion
00:00:09
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Hidden Plain Sight. I'm one of your co-hosts, Jo. I'm Echo. And I'm Jenny. ah Today's episode, we're going to focus on our little book club. Does anyone care to mention the the title of the book that we're reviewing today?
Review of 'The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn' by Peggy Klaus
00:00:25
Speaker
Yes, it's a book actually recommended by one of our guest speakers um came um a while back. um The book name is called brack The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It by Peggy Closs.
00:00:40
Speaker
and Thank you, Aiko. Go ahead, Jenny.
The Necessity of Bragging in Corporate Spaces
00:00:43
Speaker
and And I think one of the reasons why we wanted to talk about this was because bragging is, this this idea of bragging is just so unnatural to a lot of us. And yet it's almost like a requirement to get ahead in most corporate spaces. So that's why we thought we could do this. or we could cover this topic.
00:01:01
Speaker
Yeah. Again, special thanks to Ting for recommending this book. Peggy Klaus is, of course, an author on this practical guide on how to do self-promotion and reframing this language in talking about bragging and i as a way of like vital communication and not necessarily arrogance.
00:01:19
Speaker
And the three of us kind of spoke about it a little bit. and Like, this would be really good for us to to talk about and actually talk about how the good things about and the bad things, meat well, I don't know about the bad things, but the things that we don't do as well to about ourselves and maybe convey some of this knowledge to our audience as well, too.
Personal Experiences with Bragging
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah, I would say that book definitely shaped, reshaped or and let me rethink about how I define bragging for sure as a definition. um But I wanted to go back to the earlier question that Jenny brought up What do you two feel about when people are saying that we need to brag ourselves? What's your love and hate relationship with this world before you're reading this book? Well, I could start off. I dislike bragging. I dislike bragging in my personal life and in my professional life.
00:02:07
Speaker
I've never really been a fan of it just because it just sounds like, it just sounds like egotistical. And I think that's where i i cringe at the idea of like tuning my own horn.
00:02:19
Speaker
um ah But yes, i'm I'm with you on that. like This book sort of changed how I view it. And even that conversation with Ting sort of helped me shift my mindset. But what about you, Doug?
00:02:30
Speaker
You know, I've been slowly trying to change my perception on bragging. i'm totally with you, Jenny, in that it sounds it does sound egotistical. I'm but then highlighting a lot of things that maybe i do that I specialize in.
00:02:43
Speaker
ah But then I'm slowly getting to the point i'm like, I think this is necessary in order for new folks who meet me to know where I'm coming from, to understand that the work that I do because you know they don't live or do the work that I do.
00:02:58
Speaker
I think this book definitely kind of validates some of the concerns that I have about over bragging because I think Peggy Klaus also talks about that as well too. Don't overdo it. You will get followed up and you're not, you know, when when that does happen, there are consequences to it.
00:03:15
Speaker
I guess that was always one of my, biggest fears, but I think like there's a like a nice middle ground, a practical middle ground that Peggy Klaus brings to the conversation with this.
Cultural Perspectives on Modesty vs. Self-Promotion
00:03:26
Speaker
And i really I really enjoyed it as well, too. And I took some notes on some things I want to do moving forward.
00:03:33
Speaker
What about you, Echo? um ah Absolutely, like a plus one to both what you have shared so far. um And also, like for me, growing up in the East Asian culture, it was just ah such a modest culture that I was taught not to brag about anything, like just be modest and be like almost like not self-promoting in a way that, so I don't be the one that, don't What's the, what's the stand for it? and That if you're the people going to shoot the bird, if they stand out something, there's a word for it. I mean, there's something like in the Chinese meaning, but I'm pretty sure like in English there's something
00:04:15
Speaker
similar to that degree. In English, there's the the squeaky wheel gets the oil, right? Like, so if you're loud, you're the one who who's going to get the resource. But that's interesting. So if you're the loud bird, you're going to get shot first.
00:04:30
Speaker
What a big difference. Yeah. So interesting. I, you know, growing up in the States, this is what I heard from my mom quite a bit as well too. Like your accomplishments and the things that you do will will speak for itself. And of course, um being the contrarian son that I am sometimes, I not like to, but I just go against the conventional grain.
00:04:53
Speaker
I don't know if it's something that's naturally imbued in me or it's just something that when I hear people tell me that I can't do something, I want to do it. Oh, so that's interesting. So your mom said don't toot your own horn and the contrarian in you wants to do the exact opposite. Tell me more. Yeah, to an extent. um I don't know if it's just this like counterculture that I kind of grew up with.
Challenges of Recognition Across Industries
00:05:16
Speaker
It's like, you know, don't stick out. Don't do these things. Don't ah stand out. Like, you know, do your work.
00:05:23
Speaker
Like your your hard work and your dedication will showcase, ah you know, your boss or whoever will recognize it And, you know, in the in the world, I think that we work in might be different from the jobs that, you know, my mom and ah brothers and sisters had. So I think like it we need to pivot and take a different approach to it.
00:05:46
Speaker
And, you know, i always. see their line of work is different from the work that I've gotten into. So while say, you know, I went against it, I really, what I really mean is like, you know, I tried to find that balance between talking about myself, but not overdoing it, or it does sound like ah bragging ah to the point where I'm just, know,
00:06:12
Speaker
talking on my ass or just saying things I don't do because we, in a way, I feel like we've talked about how others have taken credit for things that they haven't done and they, or they're just not truthful about that. And it's just disheartening to perpetuate something like that.
00:06:29
Speaker
Okay, so I have a question. So you're saying that in certain industries it's okay to brag as opposed to other industries where it's not okay to brag, is that right? Yeah. Now that I'm thinking about it here, just as a caveat, just keep in mind that you know I have, ah you know ah for immigrant, like Vietnamese immigrants who came to the States in the late eighty s early 90s, the jobs that are available are really blue collar jobs.
00:06:56
Speaker
you know, you may, there may or may not be, well, there probably isn't that much mobility going in there. You're going to be one of the low skilled laborers that's coming in and doing the work.
00:07:06
Speaker
And of course they didn't want to create any additional issues because historically we know ah that does become an issue ah with immigrants coming in taking a potentially a lower wage, doing the same amount of work, if not working harder than those who are asking a higher wage. So,
00:07:24
Speaker
I think they didn't want to ruffle feathers and whatnot. I felt like we, ah the profession i was going into with, that we're in with IO psychology, industrial organizational psychology, the things we do, we specialize in, right? There's a really approach.
00:07:40
Speaker
ah spectrum of things that we could do, but what we specialize in, not everybody knows. I think we need to be able to convey what our specialty is and maybe even what we want out of the role as well, too, depending on the situation.
00:07:55
Speaker
Got it. Got it.
Balancing Self-Promotion and Bragging
00:07:56
Speaker
Now, that makes sense. That makes sense. So in in certain cases, you don't want to ruffle feathers. So keep a low profile. You do not want to brag. Yeah. But in certain cases, like the ones that we occupy, we should be somehow tooting our own horn in some ways.
00:08:10
Speaker
Yeah. In a non-arrogant manner. I say in kind of an upbeat, arrogant way. Yeah. What you shared and do also makes me going back to the definition that Peggy has in her book.
00:08:25
Speaker
Am I allowed to just read the now, ah read along the definition that she had there? oh please do. it Yeah. She had like a little bragging dictionary on the different words around like a brag.
00:08:36
Speaker
Her definition for brag is to talk about your best self, including interest, ideas, and accomplishments. with pride and passion in a conversational manner intended to excite admiration, interest, and wonder without pretense or overstatement.
00:08:56
Speaker
In and other words, without being obnoxious. And I love that definition so much. That is probably like that entire highlights of her book itself. I have to give her the credits on that. Mm-hmm.
00:09:11
Speaker
So then the question becomes, well, how do you brag without sounding obnoxious? Because there is a fine line between bragging to to convey a point and to sell yourself versus bragging to do all those things, but also like step on others and like ruffle feathers.
00:09:26
Speaker
Because that's the line that where i sort of have a ah tough time with, because like what's what comes the across as like, important information versus this is just me showing off. I think for me that I can speak and to why I felt like I am find this definition is super helpful is I think the key sense there is you wanted to generate some interesting ah conversation.
00:09:49
Speaker
So when you're saying this, it's not that you're trying to make a statement. Well, maybe you are, but the statement will help you to engage an interesting conversation with someone else.
Skillful Bragging in Professional Settings
00:10:02
Speaker
um And I think that's probably the key. i can I can think of the scenario, um like or maybe we can tell the difference between someone being obnoxious versus not, is sometimes someone really just wants to make a statement and that's the end of the conversation. That makes you feel like obnoxious, versus someone genuinely saying this and you become interesting. like im consider like the perceiver of someone bragging, right? Like if someone actually said something, I felt like, oh, this is interesting. know I wanted to learn more.
00:10:34
Speaker
So in that way, that just didn't come across as they were being like bragging in an obnoxious way. So that for me is the the the fine line of how I tell whether I'm being obnoxious or versus not, whether you kill the conversation. It's a two-way street.
00:10:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:00
Speaker
If I can add to that, I think ah Klaus's book really emphasizes that bragging is a skill and not necessarily a sin. So as ios psychologists, we're always thinking about the knowledge, skills and abilities, right? So let's add bragging to that. And I feel like For me, i when I was reading through this book, I was like i was thinking about the really the performance review process because managers and maybe other folks, even within the same organization, may not fully understand the work that that we do within the organization. And this is kind of a an opportunity to talk about the work that it took to take on certain milestones.
00:11:43
Speaker
and I think if you know that you're being genuine about your contributions and what you do and not overstepping that, I think it's a great brag and not necessarily something that's, you know, if done, I think kind of that middle way, it it becomes a skill and that there's something braggadocious.
00:12:06
Speaker
So that reminds me, i remember reading something about, you know, having brag bites or brag logs in your bag of from brags ah that you can use versus brag bombs, which are, you know, as Echo said, it's like one way street.
Claiming Achievements to Prevent Credit Theft
00:12:22
Speaker
It's all about you.
00:12:24
Speaker
you're not really inviting other people into the conversation. m duug Going back to what you said earlier on about you know not getting the credit that you deserve, I think that's what stands out to me as this is a necessity. like I need to learn how to do this as a skill, otherwise other people are going to come in and take credit for my work. or just leave me out of the work that I did.
00:12:45
Speaker
so I think that's what um that's what really stood out to me because you know the ideas were always, the stereotype is like we' we're quiet, we're submissive. We're not gonna like put up a fight if someone does take credit for us. And that has happened to me. And I think I've talked about this in previous podcasts.
00:13:02
Speaker
Do any of you have experience with someone taking credit for your work? and take a moment and think about that. I had a scenario that not necessarily like the work that like the credit being taken by others but like I don't think my effort or contribution being recognized that scenario so there's like a co-worker that we're working on the project basically it's a team project so everyone contribute to it and Obviously, like everyone chipped in a tongue because it was like a high-importance, high-priority project.
00:13:39
Speaker
But then the end of the the project, it was this other person who because she was more managing that, and almost like a liaison to the external team. So she was the one who did the delivery of it.
00:13:52
Speaker
like Just the phrasing in her sentence, she kept referring herself as, I did this, I did this. But it's actually a team effort. So... Later on, I just literally like a pinned this person and say, hey, it's a team effort. I'm just feeling a bit about about uncomfortable that the entire team effort did not get recognized your delivery. Wow.
00:14:15
Speaker
And this person, this other person responded, oh, I did not realize that was how, what makes you feel. um And this is, thank you for raising that because that's probably something that I need to improve in the future.
00:14:30
Speaker
um I think in that case, that person is probably just, it could be, it's just like her communication style, like she tend to focus on the work that she has done. And so I just treat it as like, company like ignorance in that case.
00:14:44
Speaker
But if I continue to see that happen then it's something about this person or the personality. But that actually got me thinking like in that case, I was intervened when afterwards, like after the fact, and when everything has already concluded. so maybe all the other leadership or the other teams thinking this is like her effort.
00:15:06
Speaker
But I was wondering if there's a better way even during that process, because we were all there like, so Can I do something a way that is also bragging or self-promote entire team without all the other people feeling, this person is just trying to break her um So that reading this book got me thinking like maybe there's something I can do on the spot versus just because I think Peggy also mentioned the timing of that delivery matters. Like I think she was also using a case where someone get like a promoted, you know, really tough economy situation um because the timing was like a perfect or something. So, but anyway, that was something got me thinking about that example.
00:15:52
Speaker
I wonder, so in the moment, what could you have done? if you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, what could you have said? I, well, I still need to think about for that scenario, but I've seen what people have done in the past is ah the team leader actually step out and say, hey, thank you so much for the team.
00:16:12
Speaker
i understand everyone in this project has contributed a lot and thank you for this person to give me the presentation, but I wanted to recognize the effort that everyone has put through.
00:16:23
Speaker
So that's the great example where I see, oh, actually the team member also being validated with the effort they put in. But in that case, because we were all peers, i could probably say something at the end, but also at the same time, I haven't figured out like a best way to handle that situation.
Addressing Unrecognized Team Efforts
00:16:40
Speaker
And that also assumed that the in the case that I brought up earlier, that I was assuming that the team leader actually knows everyone. Because um there will be cases, and for example, like the the example I gave earlier.
00:16:54
Speaker
I actually don't know if the team leader knows how much each person plays. Anyway, that's a challenging situation to be in and i'm I'm wondering like what would I have done? And I really admire the fact that you intervened, even if it was after the fact and you told that person, hey, I noticed this xyz.
00:17:10
Speaker
Because sometimes the trouble that I have is if someone has already boasted or, you know, taken credit for or did what that person did, do I really want to jump in and course correct or do I just let it slide?
00:17:23
Speaker
Yeah. I'm gonna be the contrarian, Jenny. Oh, okay, let's hear it, let's hear it. All right, so, so what if the other person brags? What's stopping you from bragging about the things that you do?
00:17:36
Speaker
I think part of it is I am the type of person, and this is just my personality, is if someone already said something in a meeting, i don't say it again because it's already been said.
00:17:48
Speaker
Just to streamline the conversation, if someone already brought up point A, I'm not gonna bring up point A again. So what if they said they overstated they did this and that? why Why does that stop you? You know, now that you frame it that way, I guess I have no excuse. And maybe it's just lack of practice. And this is something that, you know, this is something that I have to work on and get better at.
00:18:08
Speaker
and Yeah, almost like a ah correction being issued or some way. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And also I think sometimes for me is I'm also not necessarily afraid, but definitely I have that concern is what if I said something that is different from this other person? Would that means I'm just giving them a hard time in front of everyone? I'm not very good at dealing with the healthy conflict sometimes. Like I would try to avoid that situation.
00:18:38
Speaker
I think that's probably something I need to work on. Because in that case, I could totally just come across as Difficult. Yeah, being difficult and having a different view with this other person. But i I think in some environment that that kind of healthy debate is welcomed, but not always.
00:19:03
Speaker
Let me follow kind of the trend because I feel like this is where we're talking about the downside of of ourselves. But I also want to make sure that we emphasize the the upside and how we go about doing it already.
00:19:14
Speaker
But let me say that in you know ah in the book, I think Peggy talks about deflecting compliments. And I am very guilty of that myself saying, you know, like, oh, it wasn't, it wasn't a thing or yeah, you know, it's expected of me as opposed to, I think what Peggy was trying to say is that, you know, take that compliment and turn it into a launching pad.
00:19:35
Speaker
Yeah. i know, that thing that I did that helped launch XYZ, that was very hard. I had to do this and that, and this is how I got us ready for the next iteration of things. So, And for me, that was really eye-opening in that, oh my gosh, yeah, I realized I've been doing this thing. yeah, it's not a big deal. I'm still being modest about it. You know, it was expected of me. Like, no, it wasn't. it wasn't even on paper. You did that on your own. You went out of your way to do it. And it wasn't easy. And you know it, just like everyone else, because it was a problem beforehand. And i caught myself doing that. And when she said,
00:20:11
Speaker
turn that comp, take the take that compliment, thank folks. And then just, you know, use it as a launching pad to talk about the the difficulty or not or the the the how much effort was put in there and how much more responsibilities, know, you ought to get if that's what you want um moving forward. i thought that was ah ah that was a great point.
00:20:30
Speaker
I have a question because I also experienced the same thing. Like I deflect compliments and I'm wondering like, why do we do that? Like Echo, do you do that at all? I think the best ex example is um every time when the people are saying like, oh, Echo, I don't know how you can do this work well while also getting your PhD done.
00:20:51
Speaker
And I always just like very quickly slipped on it and was like, and just get it down or um I just use one quick sentence, thank you. But I don't never talk about like the challenges or the the difficulties or the effort or the endless of weekends without and like a real weekend kind of thing.
00:21:14
Speaker
I never talk about it. Yeah, i that's a great question. And I like what you called out, Doug. I think that's something I need to do that more more and more in the future. o And it's so easy too, because the work it's been done for you. So someone's already saying, Hey Doug, great job on this or Echo, a fantastic job on this. They're already acknowledging you.
00:21:34
Speaker
So the easiest thing for us to do is just thank you and accept it, own it.
Transforming Compliments into Opportunities
00:21:39
Speaker
i mean, I think that's something that I definitely have to work on as well. Cause usually my first instinct is always to say, Oh no, it was a team effort. Oh, it wasn't me with someone else. yeah um But you can do both. You can say, Oh yeah yeah, I did do a huge part of that chunk. And i also want to acknowledge the people who worked on it. But yeah, I'm going to take that compliment and own it.
00:21:57
Speaker
If I may just add, you know, sometimes when i yeah I'm thinking about the comparison, it's like, who am I comparing myself to? Right? Like my colleagues also have PhDs from other universities and they worked really hard as well too.
00:22:11
Speaker
And not every organization a you know, a cohort of that or many people like that. Maybe in our network, we know a lot of folks like that because that's our world. But in the workplace, we may be the only few. And to take that knowledge ah you know compliment, to acknowledge that hard work that we did, i think will go a long ways. And I'm going to to try to do my best to start taking that compliment more often and taking it and using it as a launching pad.
00:22:43
Speaker
Oh, I was also going to write up like a different topic as I was reading that book. I wanted to hear what you two think about it There was an exercise that Peggy put in there in the book.
Exercises for Identifying Strengths and Achievements
00:22:55
Speaker
It's on page 23, but it's a self-evaluation. asks you...
00:23:01
Speaker
all those questions, which I saw that it's very practical. And the purpose for Peggy to put that in the book is because she felt like once you'd be able to answer those 12 questions, you have things that you can brag about. Can you give us a few examples?
00:23:16
Speaker
Yeah, for example, like the first question that has, oh what would you and others say are the five of your personality classes? What are the 10 most important things that you have done or that has happened to you?
00:23:30
Speaker
So to me, that doesn't feel like a bragging. That's literally like you wanted to start a conversation, let other people to get to know you. um And I find that's fascinating because sometimes we are lack of the material that we can brag about is because we don't think about like,
00:23:45
Speaker
um as in a holistic or systematic way. So that's from also something very interesting to me. Cause like now i wanted to hear Doug, you talking about your five personality plus Jenny, I want to hear your most important 10 interesting things happen to you, right? Like that's something I think is the conversation starter.
00:24:06
Speaker
Curious about you two, how you think about it.
00:24:11
Speaker
Jenny, you want to go first or you want me to go? You can go. Okay. ah So um great call out echo. I have the audio book version of this and I think it mentioned it, meant you to I think earlier, and I told myself I was going to go back to it and I forgot to, but I did write a little brag a braga lot, little like 30 seconds spiel about myself, but I think you're absolutely right.
00:24:35
Speaker
that there are these little exercises that Peggy Klaus has brought in that allows you to make the bragging process a little bit easier because it introduces it to us, I think, in a subtle way.
00:24:47
Speaker
um Gosh, in terms of personality classes, oh, that's tough because... I use personality inventories and I have a certain language that I use that I think is is vital. i would say personality-wise, things that are important to me is just being For me, like I know being low on neuroticism, not worrying about things too much is very helpful for me day to day and being very conscientious about but certain things that that need to be done, that ought to be done. That's also very important to me.
00:25:21
Speaker
I'm not as, you know, there are so other folks within our benchmark that are tidier and neater with their notes. i know I could be better on, but in terms of that, I know I can improve on that, but it's, that's who I've been all this time. It's probably not going to change despite that, but,
00:25:40
Speaker
I want to say, like, there are some important things that ah that has happened to me that i actually utilize to tell my story about how I got to organizational psychology.
Doug's Career Journey in Psychology
00:25:49
Speaker
And for me, and I think you both have heard this quite a bit.
00:25:53
Speaker
I think, you know, that label being an immigrant coming to the United States, seeing my mom. and my brothers and sisters go into the workplace at you know in low-skill labor ah positions has shaped my ah viewpoint.
00:26:07
Speaker
And working as a day laborer myself at the age of 11, 12, gave me the insight of how ah certain folks were treated in the workplace. And in pursuit in this pursuit of this PhD of IO psychology, I've always wanted to make ah the workplace a fair place.
00:26:23
Speaker
And I get to do that, and I am very happy i get to do that. Wow, that was great. It's so personal and so you, it's so unique and it does not come across as a brag at all. Yeah, and you made me want to hear you more. like Tell me more about your journey. yeah Actually, that reminds me, you know one of the things that I think Ting also mentioned this is you have to be authentic about it. You would have to also believe in your story. Like if you don't believe and you can't sell it, then no one else is going to buy into that. So I love these questions because they're so personal and it's specific and it really gives you a chance to delve deep and talk a little bit about what makes you you and what makes you unique in a very authentic way. And I think that's what i think resonates with me. I'll take the the opportunity, a moment to say thank you for giving me that feedback and something I will continue to hone and utilize um moving forward. I think it's been there's a variation of that I've used. I think like sometimes it takes a long time to get to that. But I think like sometimes when meet, we're meeting somebody for the first time.
00:27:33
Speaker
you really have, what, really 30 seconds, a few minutes to talk to them about the things that you do within the organization, even even within. you know, at networking events, you know you may never meet that person ah really again.
00:27:45
Speaker
That's true.
00:27:53
Speaker
What Doug mentioned earlier also made me, ah once I came across and ah coach, like a professional, like an executive coach, she was telling me, like, okay, it's better for you to prepare like 30 minutes pitch, one minute, three minutes and seven minutes.
Crafting Personal Stories for Different Contexts
00:28:11
Speaker
I was like, that's a such a good call. Cause know my story, like at this point, like we all hear each other on our story, but I never thought about, we need to get prepared for it. And there's different variation and version that we need to prepare for it.
00:28:25
Speaker
Um, so just another call out for the listeners, I think it's you always should prepare your bragging. It's not something that you can just come across. Maybe for some people, like it's very natural, but for someone which is not a natural skill to you, that you need to prepare for it.
00:28:42
Speaker
Yeah, i love that idea. That's doable because you can practice it. I know for someone like me, i would have to come up with a list, practice it in my head a few times. I'm not one of those like gifted people who can just like on the spot just improvise with a question.
00:28:56
Speaker
What are both your thoughts on using ai to help us with this?
The Role of AI in Personal Narratives
00:29:01
Speaker
Yay or nay? I'm a ye Yeah? I would definitely using it if it can just build on my story. So I have my own content, but I think AI probably can help me with like a condense it or highlight it or elaborate it a bit more. But I think the core content always come from my own story. To Jenny's point earlier, it has to be somewhat like authenticity to it.
00:29:27
Speaker
Okay, so for our audience members, like you know your story, you can write it out, but you don't have to do all the work. Let AI, since it's there already, help you with that that spiel, whether it be one minute, three minutes, or seven minutes.
00:29:41
Speaker
I actually did something similar recently when I was working on my podcast. one of my grant proposals. oh yeah I just typed up ah what's so special about Jennifer Kim, like what's her expertise and how does it relate to the other PIs. I just put just like verbal diarrhea onto a Word doc and then I put it into ChatGPT and said, make this streamline, wordsmith this,
00:30:01
Speaker
so that it's to the point and concise. And it really did a good job spitting out something that I just basically copy and paste it into the proposal. It worked so well. it was so polished and professional.
00:30:13
Speaker
So I totally agree with you. you know use Use the tools that are available to you. But like Echo said, you know it has to come from you. You give it the prompts, you give it the descriptions, and then help it put into something coherent.
00:30:27
Speaker
I love it. I love it. Let it do the hard work for you, but verify. Exactly. I think anything else that you two find interesting from the book? I would highly recommend it to folks out there and to our listeners, especially to people who find it, like me, find it very difficult to to brag about your accomplishments.
Conclusion: Reframing Bragging as a Skill
00:30:47
Speaker
I think it's a very good kind of a wake up call and and a good way to reframe bragging as something positive and a skill. You want people to acknowledge your work and what you've done and your accomplishments. And so there is a way to do it. It's a skill, but it's a skill that you have to start developing and practicing.
00:31:05
Speaker
I love it. I would say the same with what ah Jenny said. And I would add, keep a log of what you do performance wise that's meaningful ah to the organization and yourself. Because when performance review time comes around, whether it be mid-year or mid-year,
00:31:20
Speaker
And at the end of the year, ah you don't want to have to remember 12 months worth of work. So have that ready. So do like a biweekly or a monthly log of it so that you have, you know, your accomplishments in there so that you're searching your history and ah you know where it's at. So you're not scrambling.
00:31:39
Speaker
last minute Anything else stand up for you, Echo? um I think definitely reframing, bragging is the most ah important takeaway from from this book. and obviously, I also realized, as Duke and Jenny Yutu mentioned earlier, is a skill.
00:31:56
Speaker
When it's a skill, it requires practice. And i do think this book has a lot of strategy and tips that we can follow to practice that. um Because it doesn't, if for someone, this is not natural, then you have to practice in order to obtain that skill.
00:32:13
Speaker
So I think that's probably like the most important lesson learned from this book. There we go. It sounds like we're all approving of our audience audience members going out to get this book and read it and do the work themselves.
00:32:26
Speaker
yeah and This is good advice, good nuggets of wisdom that um you might not get from even a trained executive coach. So you're welcome.
00:32:38
Speaker
Okay, on that note, do we have a haiku? Yeah, we... Yes, we do. So I asked ChatGPT to write a haiku about this book. And what it comes back with is curious heart speaks, shared stories, weave connection, interest takes root.
00:32:57
Speaker
So it highlights curiosity, sharing stories, making the connections and make it interesting. I love that. Nice.
00:33:08
Speaker
You all got to start bragging and owning it. and just normalizing bragging in our everyday conversations. Yeah. You know, I think for our next episode, we got to do a little excerpt on us bragging to to really showcase that, you know, we read the book, now we're going to apply this knowledge and here it is in this process. I think it's something that we need to do ourselves as well too, to showcase to our audience members that we are, of course, in process,
00:33:37
Speaker
but we're going to also live up to the things that we say we want others to do. Practice what we preach. Yeah. This will be our last episode for 2025, but we will be back in January of 2026 with all new content. Thank you again for tuning in to Hidden in Plain Sight, your podcast for all things Asian in the workplace.
00:33:55
Speaker
We'll catch you next season. Bye. everyone.