Photo by Bahman Farzad
Posed by Chloe Sun
People in leadership positions need to let others know who they are, what ministries they are involved in, what they have accomplished, and how others can support and join their causes. In a way, leaders need to sell. Some leaders do it naturally and skillfully without making people feel uncomfortable, but this is not always the case. Some come across as too self-promoting. Others do it too business-like or too “humbly.” For me, I find it difficult to promote myself in general but in some contexts, people expect you to. I am interested to hear how others let people know who they are without coming across as self-promoting?
Chloe Sun, PhD., has been teaching Hebrew Scriptures at Logos Evangelical Seminary since 2004. Her research interests include culture, gender, and identity issues in the Old Testament, Asian American Interpretations of the Bible, and Wisdom Literature. She lives with her husband and son in Southern California.
aawolsisters.com 
That’s a wonderful inquiry that I too have pondered. And, am pondering today as I consider how to promote my upcoming “Immerse Yourself in Self-Care” series for women in ministry, mental health and other helping professions. Even telling you about it here, I question the “appropriateness” of using your blog as a place to self-promote. Like, perhaps I should not state what the program is, lest I come across as self-promoting. I had over 50 people attend a “Self-Care for Helping Professionals” workshop this past Saturday — clearly there is a felt need for what I offer. And, in order to get the information to people, I need to promote it. I don’t have the resources to hire someone else to do it for me. I look forward to hearing what others have to say about this. Thanks for asking the question.
Thanks for the response. I think you are doing just fine. Sharing your struggle about the appropriateness of stating your upcoming program here at the blog is a wise way to let others know about it as well as know a little bit about you. Perhaps, adding a personal touch to what we want to promote is one way to not come across as self promoting.
My experience has been that each person has a certain threshold for when s/he crosses the line of self-promoting. And then each recipient has their own threshold of when they feel that someone else is coming across as self-promoting. While you can’t control the latter, you can discern when you’ve cross your own line – in that case, don’t violate your own conscience.
What I do is this: when I write an article, I try to make sure it is publicly available, and when I speak that it is recorded and freely available online. I want to have an ample amount of my content in the public online, so that my work would speaks for itself, and that this content (knowledge and expertise) is searchable via Google and other search engines. And with that, I can make mention of who I am and what I do in my bio, and make sure I’m easy to contact. In summary, make mention of myself and my resources so that they’re available is different in my book than self-promotion.
This is such an important question, Chloe. Asian Americans, especially Asn Am Christians, are socialized (through long-inherited value systems) to lean toward self-effacement (versus self-enhancement). So we often struggle to find a way to self-promote while being true to our DNA. I have found that when I realize how important it is to our COMMUNITY that others know about what I do, the more at ease I feel about self-promoting.
My other rule-of-thumb? I code-switch to honor my audience. I think of the context and act in a way that is expected within that context. (This is another skill–very positive one, in my opinion–that Asn Ams have inherited from our value systems.) So when in Anglo contexts, for example, I push myself to self-enhance just as my Anglo colleagues do.
Hi DJ and Debbie,
Thanks for the wisdom. I agree with DJ’s idea of threshold and conscience. This internal voice is shaped by personal upbringing and culture (like what Debbie said about AA or confucious self-effacement). I like the idea of letting our work speak for itself and thinking of our community. I think it is easier for me to promote my work when it can benefit others but it is difficult to promote myself for my own sake. This does have a lot to do with Asian value system and Christians too?