Over the years, I have seen some spectacular examples of resume padding in the professional world, complete with the disastrous consequences that often accompany them.  Aspiring political candidates and job aspirants who have claimed military service never done, academic degrees never attained, professional experience never undertaken, and awards and recognition never received. Ugly consequences almost always followed.

With managers, resume padding or falsely burnishing their image rarely takes extreme or dramatic forms. It happens as a manager recounts recent and past experiences to anybody willing to listen.

I am not talking about the slight hyperbole that some folks engage in when recounting something that actually happened or telling a story.  Those who get to know them tend to account for this tendency and recalibrate what they hear.  The basic components of the story are true.

I am talking about the conscious fabrication of events, past experiences, and prior accomplishments designed to impress the listener.  Many of the basic components of the story are not true but inventions designed to let us know how impressive, important, influential, or down-right talented the story-teller is.

How do we actually know what we are hearing is a fabrication?  In many instances we do not and will not if the fabricator is clever, a skilled yarn spinner, and disciplined enough to pick their spots carefully.  But this habit tends to become habitual and eventually transparent over time to those who have heard one too many tall tales.

Some managers  have difficulty keeping their stories straight, rendering them vulnerable to comparing notes. In other instances, circumstances have required verifying a fabricated account of something revealing the actual truth.  But most often this tendency to make-up things becomes transparent, the tall tales collapsing like a house of cards.

Like other management vices, this one raises basic questions about a manager’s honesty, candor, and maturity.  It also tends to erode the mutual trust and respect that is essential to an effective superior-subordinate relationship.

Wise to remember, it is near impossible to retract something once it enters the public domain.  False claims once aired remain an ever-present danger to our reputation for honest self-disclosure and obscure the truth about what we have actually accomplished.

UPDATED May 2026

Categories: Communicating Effectively

Tags: advice for managers, best managers, effective management and leadership, effective managers and leaders, empowering managers and leaders, line management, management advice, Managing & Leading, motivational management, motovational managers and leaders