So…in last week’s episode, we talked about visibility. Specifically, why it’s important and how to get more of it in your career. Because as we all know, if we want to get ahead, it’s not enough to just do great work. Other people need to recognize our contributions and our potential.

But today I want to talk about the opposite problem. 

Which is…what happens when we get the visibility and recognition that we worked so hard for and then find ourselves intentionally shrinking back from it, either diminishing what we did or maybe hiding that accomplishment altogether.

I mean, it’s not logical right? 

Why would we nearly kill ourselves to achieve something, only to get it and then either make light of it or hide it altogether?

Well, it may not make sense, but the truth is it happens all the time. 

In fact, according to a study by the University of Chicago, 82% of respondents said they’ve hidden their accomplishments from someone else at least once in their lives. 

82%? Wow.

But maybe that number shouldn’t have surprised me because I’m in the 82%. I’ve done it more times than I care to count. And if I’m being honest, it wasn’t even a conscious thing and it wasn’t even just with one person in particular. It was kind of most people in general. I’ve just kept lots of accomplishments to myself over the course of my life. And I never really stopped to think about what it was costing me until it came up for one of my clients this week. 

My client took over his family’s business a few years ago. The business hadn’t been doing well when he stepped into the role, but he’s been working hard to turn it around and now, all those efforts are paying off. 

He’s got a flood of new clients. 

Revenue is up by like 3x in just a year. 

And now, he’s won a few national awards. 

He knows that’s important in attracting new clients, so he’s featured them in some of his advertising. But in our last session, he mentioned that he’d gotten several more and was planning to keep them a secret.

And because he seemed less than enthused about that, I asked how he felt about it. His answer was “embarrassed.” 

When I asked why he felt embarrassed he responded, “It’s too much. What are people going to say?”

To which I responded, “What do YOU think people are going to say?” 

And he responded, “People are going to think I’m arrogant and that I think everything is about me.” 

To hear more, give the episode a listen.

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