Humble brag is a contradiction

A humble brag is gift-wrapped false modesty.

The word ‘humble’ means freedom from pride. ‘Brag’ means the opposite. So whatever it is e.g. ‘I'm so exhausted from all the speaking invitations’ (I’m not, by the way 😊) it is definitely not humble.

Research by Sezer, Gino and Norton at Harvard found that humble bragging makes people less likeable than good old-fashioned, straightforward bragging. At least honest bragging has the decency to be honest. David Brent never tried to cover up the fact that he thought he was the best boss ever.

In a team, however, it signals something worse than vanity. It signals someone who has confused self-promotion with self-awareness and in my experience, those two things are not happy neighbours. It causes gossip, animosity and destroys bridges to collaboration.

Humility is quiet. It goes unnoticed because it doesn't announce itself.

It turns up on time, listens without waiting for its turn to speak, and credits the people around it. It doesn't need a LinkedIn post for people to like and it doesn't need your validation.

The irony is, the people that we remember the most in our workplaces are the ones who never seemed to notice how good they were. That's not a humble brag. That's just humility. And they are nothing alike.