As IT managers, we work hard. We have a lot of different things on our plate at any given point in time to apply our IT manager skills to: projects, new technology evaluations, and simply trying to keep our team together and moving forward. That’s why when we are actually able to accomplish something it really is a big deal. We know it’s a big deal and we’d like to let the rest of the world know that it’s a big deal. One way to go about doing this is for us to do some bragging. However, we’ve never had any IT manager training on this so just exactly how can we do it correctly?
Things An IT Manager Should Not Do When Bragging
One of the things that you don’t want to do is to pick the wrong occasion to start to brag about yourself. In order to get this right, you are going to have to take a step back for just a moment. You want to take a very close look at who you will be talking with and determine how you want them to perceive you. If you want to come across as being an impressive person, then bragging might be the right thing to do. However, if you want to be seen as being likable, then this is most defiantly not the time to engage in some bragging.
What you say when you start to brag about yourself is very important. You want to let other people know that you did something great. More specifically, you did something better than most other people would be able to do it. This is all good, but you need to be careful how you go about telling people about your accomplishments. What you want to be careful to not do is to exaggerate what your accomplishments were. The other things that you’ll want to be careful to not do will be to steal credit for doing something that somebody else did or just flat out lie. If you do any of these things, there is a very good chance that you are going to be found out. Once this happens, nobody is going to believe anything else that you say about yourself.
When you are telling people about the great things that you’ve done, it is going to be very important that you not make the mistake of comparing your accomplishment to other people. If you do this, then the people that are listening to you are going to start to think that you believe that you are superior to them also. This all comes across in a very negative fashion and that’s not what you want to do.
Things An IT Manager Should Do When Bragging
The good news about bragging is that you can do it as long as you know how you can do it. One fantastic way to go about bragging is to tell your listeners a story. The reason that a story is such an effective way to go about bragging is because everyone likes to hear a story. While you are telling your story, you can drop in a just a few points where you brag about your accomplishments. This form of bragging is fairly subtle and won’t sound like you are trying to one-up everyone.
When you are bragging you are going to have to be careful about using the word “I”. Yes, you are going to have to use it sometimes, but there is a real danger that you may end up over using it. If you do this, then you will start to sound insufferable. Solve this problem by bringing other people into your story and sharing the credit.
You don’t want to just show up and start to brag about yourself. Instead, you are going to want to take a bit of time and practice your bragging before you actually start to do it. The reason that you are going to want to do this is because when you are bragging, you are going to want to come across as being passionate. You are really excited about what you’ve been able to accomplish and you want to share it with everyone. Take the time to figure out how you want to express this before you try it and it will always turn out better.
What All Of This Means For You
IT managers do a lot. We are very busy people who have a lot on our plates what with all of that IT team building we’re always doing. However, sometimes we get lucky and something that we are responsible just comes together – we actually accomplish something! When this happens, we want to tell people about what we’ve done. We want to brag. This is all fine and good, but first we need to know how to go about doing this bragging stuff.
What should we not do if we want to do some bragging? You can’t just start bragging at any point in time. Instead, you need to very carefully pick the right time. You don’t want to exaggerate what your accomplishments were because if you get caught in a lie, then nobody is going to believe anything else that you have to tell them. Finally, when bragging don’t compare yourself to others because then it will look like you are just putting them down. Instead, when you want to brag use stories to tell people about your accomplishments because everyone likes to hear a good story. Don’t use the word “I” too much, instead share some of the credit for the accomplishment. Before you start to tell others about your accomplishments, make sure that you take the time to practice what you want to tell them.
When we accomplish something significant it is only natural that we want to tell others what we’ve done. What this generally means is that we want to engage in some bragging about our accomplishments. It turns out that this is an acceptable way to communicate to the world what we have been able to accomplish. However, we need to be very careful that we go about doing it correctly. If we can get this right, then everyone will know what we’ve done!
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Skills™
Question For You: Do you think that there are some people what we should never brag about what we’ve done to?
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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
Something odd is going on. Right now, at companies everywhere, more and more firms are in the process of adopting brand new technologies such as cloud, mobile, and processing of big data. More and more these firms in many different fields are starting to look more and more like those flashy startup firms out in Silicon Valley. These firms’ adoption of the latest and greatest in new technology means that they are fundamentally changing how their companies are being run and we may not have the IT manager skills needed to deal with this kind of change. This is radically changing how these firms look – now they are starting to look like those internet ventures.