How to talk about your achievements without being arrogant. This is probably one of the most complex social questions there is.
There are many situations where you want other to know you’re skilled and/or knowledgeable on a certain domain. A few examples:
- You want investors to know you know a lot about the market
- You want potential partners to know you have a lot of experience with this industry
In both scenarios it’s important the investor or the potential partner know you’re skilled. This gives you an authority and a certain credibility which increases your (negotiation) power significantly.
In short: In certain situations, you want other people to know you are highly skilled or educated in a certain object. It’s your goal to tell or show them.
At the other hand, you don’t want them to think you’re an arrogant jerk.
Let’s put it into a formula. The more you brag, the higher you score. If you never brag, you score zero points.
0 = Nobody thinks you’re arrogant, but nobody knows about your skills either
100 = Everybody thinks you’re arrogant, but at least you told them about your skills
If you score 0, that’s bad.
If you score 100, that’s also bad (who would ever listen to a person like this)
So how do you talk about your achievements without being arrogant?
You would probably think that the right approach would be in the middle. You brag a little, but not too much. You would aim for a score of 50.
Right?
Well, not entirely. Today you’re going to learn a few tricks to talk about your achievements without being arrogant.
By using the tricks mentioned below, you can demonstrate your skills, but nobody will think you’re arrogant. Apply these 7 methods, and you’ll know how to talk about your achievements without being arrogant.
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How to talk about your achievements without being arrogant
If you don’t feel like reading the entire article, feel free to use the headers below.
#1 Use facts, not opinions
Demonstrate authority by using facts instead of opinions
I can tell you that I’m the best pitch coach there is. However, I can also tell you that I coached hundreds of entrepreneurs with their pitch.
By simply mentioning facts instead of an opinion, I leave it up to you to decide what you think about it. As long as your facts are positive, so will be their judgement of you.
#2 Mention we-achievements, not I-achievements
For some reason it’s annoying when somebody talks about how good he/she is. However, when he talks about how well his/her team has been doing, this changes everything.
When you pitch your company, talk about the things your company achieved, instead of just you.
#3 Avoid superlatives
It can be tempting to use words such as ‘super’, ‘very’ and ‘the best’. However, this decreases your credibility and will make you sound arrogant.
Instead of saying ‘our team works super hard’ you should rather say ‘our teams works hard’. Simply deleting one word changes everything.
#4 Be grateful about your success
Let’s say your company is doing really well and at some point throughout your pitch you mentioned this. It can be incredibly powerful to add the following few words after that: ‘I still can’t believe how fast we’re growing’. You can also use variations such as ‘I’m still shocked sometimes how fast things are going’.
#5 Use your business partner
This one works especially well when you’re in a meeting with an investor or a potential partner. Bring your business partner to a meeting, and have him/her mention a few of your achievements during the meeting. This won’t make you seem arrogant, but still gets the message across.
#7 Share the struggles too
This one derives from the same thoughts as number #4. Instead of mentioning all the success you’re having, it can be powerful to (quickly) mention one of the struggles you had too. Not only does this make you sound humble, it also shows that you were able to fight yourselves from a bad position to the position where you are today.
If you really want to leverage this tactic, try to blend it in a story. ‘The first few months we knocked on every door to do our sales. Some days, we wouldn’t even close one customer. I’ve had days where people would be screaming at me, in the rain. That was tough. It’s crazy to see that a few months later, our company is doing $250.000, – in sales per month’.
This does not only meek you sound humble; it also involves a little bit of storytelling. Who doesn’t love a good story?
Conclusion
It’s okay to talk about your achievements. Better yet, you should talk about your achievements. Use these tactics to talk about your achievements without being arrogant. Good luck!
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