Recently, I went to a presentation of “The Art of Bragging” by workplace communication and leadership expert Peggy Klaus, whose client list includes movie stars and mega-businesses. Klaus has been on Nightline, The Today Show, 20/20, and her advice has been seen in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Fortune, Business Week, and O Magazine.
According to Klaus, there is such a thing as “good bragging.” She defines it as “A way of talking about your accomplishments in a very conversational, fluid, story-like manner using a few (not a laundry list) brag nuggets or tidbits of information about you and your accomplishments, said with passion, a sense of urgency and delight to be in front of your audience.”
Like an elevator pitch with more pizzazz, a bragologue (Klaus’ term) is story-like and invites dialogue unlike the on-and-on monologue of a braggart that inevitably tries to one up you, drop names, exaggerate, steal credit, and repeatedly begins sentences with “I.”
Here’s some key ingredients of a bragologue. They include five to ten “brag bits,” which come from tidbits of information about you from:
1. What you love about what you do;
2. What you do with what you love;
3. Some of your career successes you’re most proud of;
4. New skills you’ve learned in the past year; and
5. Obstacles you’ve overcome in your life.
You can find more of Klaus’ guidelines for crafting your own bragologue in her book, The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn Without Blowing It. What are some of your brag bits?