You don’t have to shrink so others feel tall. Stand at your real height.

Downplaying yourself starts as courtesy and hardens into a habit that costs you accuracy about your own work. Making yourself smaller does not actually make anybody else larger; it leaves the room with a wrong picture, and you along with it. Comfort bought that way is temporary while the distortion stays.

State something you did plainly this week, with no hedge and no joke wrapped around it. Just the fact, in one sentence. Watch who is glad for you, and let that tell you something about the company you keep.