To succeed at work, it’s often said that we need to master the art of self-promotion. Of course, it’s not always as straight forward as we assume. Indeed, a study from Bayes Business School reminds us that the recipient of our bragging is nearly always much less enthusiastic about it than we are.

Things don’t get any better when we deploy the tried and trusted humble brag. Research from Harvard shows that this alienates the listener just as much as a bold as brass brag.

An unequal playing field

As if to compound matters, a study from the London School of Economics shows that even when self-promotion works, it doesn’t work for everyone. The researchers examined professionals working at a major financial firm to explore how self-promotion was deployed and whether it was effective or not.

They found that self-promotion can actually backfire for Black employees, as when they boasted about their achievements, managers would often respond negatively, with this especially so for white managers. This so-called “racial backlash” resulted in Black employees being rated lower in areas such as confidence, capability, and warmth.

This is largely because of the negative stereotypes some managers continue to hold about Black employees, with these stereotypes conflicting with things like ambition and competence. When someone is showing off their achievements, this can be hard to countenance with expectations of low performance. This discrepancy challenges the stereotypical expectations and leads to a negative reaction.

Something to prove

This creates a particular challenge, as the researchers found an understandable desire to promote oneself among Black employees given the considerable historical and current challenges faced in the workplace. For instance, Black professionals still struggle to make it to the boardroom, or even senior leadership positions. This can inevitably prompt many to push extra hard to make sure their skills and accomplishments are seen and noticed.

The study suggests, however, that these efforts may have the opposite effect, and actually make managers less likely to acknowledge them. What’s more, it may even prompt managers to question whether Black employees are a good cultural fit for the company, with these reactions having a profound impact on their career progression.

The authors believe that their findings demonstrate the important role diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plays in the workplace, especially as previous research from Rice University shows that even subtle signs of racism can easily result in burnout among Black employees. This is especially so as the study found that one of the most common, and pernicious, forms of microaggression was around the ability and intelligence of Black employees.

Making things better

So what can be done to help matters? The LSE researchers suggest that the first step is to discourage self-promotion as something that all employees need to do. Self-promotion is often something that is advertised as helping employees to uplift themselves.

Indeed, this can be especially so for Black employees as self-promotion can be advocated as something to help them overcome more systemic biases. It’s similar in some ways to the message to women to “lean-in” and take personal responsibility for the biases that so often hold them back in the workplace.

It’s reminiscent of research from Cornell, which found that Black employees can benefit from something known as “racial codeswitching”, which is when they change their behaviors to make white colleagues more comfortable. It’s an example of how we can so often put the onus on the disadvantaged group to change their behavior rather than the people and systems that result in them being disadvantaged.

Spotting implicit biases

The next step proposed by the LSE researchers is to focus on fixing the implicit biases managers exhibit toward Black employees. A study from the University of Florida found that managers are actually more likely to show implicit biases toward disadvantaged groups than employees as a whole. This shows the scale of the challenge

It underlines the importance of having explicit programs to help managers understand that they likely have implicit biases. One such tool is Project Implicit, which was developed by researchers at Harvard to test for implicit bias. This tool provides a good start, but could be extended to specifically highlight biases against self-promotion among Black employees may also be useful.

Organizations need to realize that while self-promotion could, and perhaps should, be a tool for growth, it’s actually a disadvantage for some sections of the workforce. It’s beholden on managers to create a culture and systems whereby all employees have the same opportunities to succeed.