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In the tough world of work, we all need to do a little self-promotion every now and then.
But there is a difficult balance to be struck between announcing our achievements without making them seem implausible.
Now a study has found the answer: highlight the achievements of your colleagues while letting your own light shine.
Researchers say this ‘double promotion’ tactic is the perfect way to ensure we are seen as competent while still exuding ‘warmth’.
“We show that by simultaneously promoting others – describing the achievements and qualities of others – and self-promotion – describing one’s own achievements and qualities – individuals can radiate both warmth and competence,” the researchers said.
In the tough world of work, we all need to do a little self-promotion every now and then. But there is a difficult balance to be struck between announcing our achievements without making them seem implausible. Now a study has found the answer: highlight your colleagues’ achievements while letting your own light shine (stock image)
The team from Vanderbilt University, George Mason University and the University of Pennsylvania distinguished between double promotion and ingratitude, where someone says something positive about someone to their face or in their presence, which makes a good impression on the person receiving the invitation. praise.
Double promotion involves emphasizing the achievements of others even when those other people are not there.
Someone might use double promotion in, for example, a job interview where none of their colleagues were present.
“Double promotion is not directly about improving relationships with the person being complimented, but rather about showing a third party that you care about this other person to demonstrate your own warmth and competence,” says Dr. Eric VanEpps, one of the authors of the study.
However, he said most people don’t try to double-promote when they’re in a job interview, for example.
In a pilot study, they surveyed hiring managers, who said that the majority of candidates they interviewed (69.1 percent) only self-promoted, while only 12.6 percent engaged in double-promotion.
“It seems like people aren’t thinking about speaking positively about others right now, or they’re afraid they’ll look worse by comparison,” said Dr. VanEpps, an associate professor of marketing at Vanderbilt University.
“But we find out time and time again that it’s good to compliment your colleagues, especially – this is the ‘double’ part of double promotion – in addition to taking credit for your own abilities and achievements.”
Researchers say this ‘double promotion’ tactic is the perfect way to ensure we are seen as competent while still exuding ‘warmth’ (stock image)
For the study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers completed seven experiments involving 1,488 participants.
Observers evaluated individuals who engaged in double promotion compared to other “impression management strategies,” in a range of contexts.
In one experiment, 200 hiring managers were asked to read about two colleagues who had completed a joint project and were evaluating themselves.
The colleague who took advantage of double promotion wrote: ‘This project was successful because of our teamwork.
‘I took care of all financial analyses, technical processes and back-end design. Alex really impressed me with the way he handled our customer communications.
“We both took charge of what we are good at and it led to a great result.”
The other colleague, who used ‘self-promotion’, wrote: ‘This project was successful because of the efficient technical details.
‘My skills were a perfect fit for this project, so I took care of all financial analysis, technical processes and back-end design.
‘I took charge of what I do best and it led to a great result.’
The managers rated the two candidates virtually the same on competence, but the double-promotion candidate was rated significantly higher on warmth, scoring an average of 5.65 on a seven-point scale, compared to 4.14 for the self-promotion candidate.
Additionally, the managers had a more positive overall impression of the double-promotion candidate, scoring 5.83 on a seven-point scale, compared to the self-promotion candidate, who scored 4.67.
The research team said that previous studies have identified “so many behaviors” that people do in the area of self-promotion that, while they successfully give a good impression on one dimension, they ultimately harm the way people think of them on another dimension. . ‘self-promotion dilemma’.
They concluded: ‘In this work, we identify a novel approach to solving the self-promotion dilemma, which we call ‘double promotion’.’