Self-promotion vs. Tall Poppy syndrome

Some years ago my first manager/mentor in Australia warned me during my exit interview, "to beware of tall poppy syndrome." At the time I took it to refer to the price of doing what's right. Later I learnt this was a more general reference to Australian culture of low tolerance toward people who stand out from the crowd.

Australian is not the only culture where keeping low profile is a common norm. Growing up in Russian-speaking Moldova, I remember how children were taught modesty. The teaching was supported by a popular illustrated fairy tale about nasty, selfish letter "I" who no one liked, and an old folk proverb roughly translated as "I is the last letter of the alphabet". Indeed, the Russian equivalent of "I" is the letter "Я" and it is the last letter of the Russian alphabet.

Not surprisingly, people brought up in cultures that place high value on humility and teamwork often find it difficult to adjust when moving to the USA, where every growing child is encouraged to seek stardom, and a strive for individual achievement is widely considered to be a key success factor.

This HBR article (by Dorie Clark and Andy Molinsky) takes a look at how people deal with these differences in the context of self-promotion in a business setting, and offers some good tips.

Personally, 14 years after moving to the USA I came to see the self-promotion as a way to simply inform others about me. When I frame it like this it does not feel like bragging at all, not in the culture where others are often genuinely interested in my personal accomplishments...