Share Credit

In his excellent book, How to Become CEO, Jeffrey Fox advises leaders to “be a credit maker, not a credit taker.”  He says, “The credit taker is insecure, dishonest, and known to all.  Even the cleverest credit taker is ultimately found out.” 

In contrast, when you GIVE proper credit to others, you will become known as a leader who gets results.  This brands you as a person people want to work with and work for.  Your team will give you their best efforts because they know they will get the recognition they deserve.  Colleagues will support you and collaborate with you because they will feel genuinely valued and respected.

My brilliant friend, Keith Drury, calls this The Glory Garden Principle.  He explains,

You can only plant glory [recognition, credit] in other people’s gardens. 

This is a principle based on universal human psychology and behavior.  You know instinctively that this is true!  You know how this works:  When you brag about the work of other people, you are seen as generous, insightful, supportive, and appreciative.  But when you brag about your own accomplishments, you are seen as arrogant, self-aggrandizing, self-absorbed, and “full of yourself.”  Worse, you are also often seen as a “credit taker.”

Here’s how to apply The Glory Garden Principle in your own leadership:

1.  Create objective measurements for your team’s success.  Use those standards and metrics to challenge your team to do good work.  Then be sure to recognize them accordingly and give your team the credit they deserve when they succeed.

Up Close and Personal

One of my former colleagues, Tony Knight, challenged his team to reverse their poor tardiness record.  TOGETHER, he and his team set a straightforward, CLEAR and MEASURABLE goal for improvement.  When they were successful in hitting the goal, he applauded their success in a memo to his boss, who then forwarded the report to his colleagues.  His boss’s colleagues flooded Tony’s inbox with plaudits of his great leadership!  This is the unexpected result of sharing credit with your team:  When you praise them, you bathe in the reflected light of their success! 

Speaking of which…

2.  Coach your team to greater effectiveness, and brag on their accomplishments to your boss.  This reinforces a positive image with your boss and sets the stage to groom your team members for future promotion and advancement.

3.  Find ways to give your team members more visibility in the organization, especially with higher-ups.  This positions you (and your team) as being integral to the success of your organization and its mission.

4.  Make it a point to publicly acknowledge and praise the help of your colleagues.  One manager I know writes thank-you notes of appreciation to his colleagues’ bosses.  He has found this simple practice to be invaluable to his ability to expand his influence in the organization; collaborate more effectively across departmental lines; and achieve greater overall success in his role.

Mita Mallick is the head of inclusion, equity, and impact at Carta, a fintech company. She co-hosts the podcast Brown Table Talk. During a recent Harvard Business Review podcast hosted by Amy Gallo, Mita shared the following observation about this very issue:

…nothing in organizations happens alone. It’s a group of people. You might have done a lot, but it’s a group of people that are doing it. So, when you start to share that enthusiasm and when you start to give other people credit, they’ll give you credit back.

5.  And yes… you can praise your boss, too!  A simple word of appreciation can be a very positive thing.  Just make sure it’s specific so as to avoid brown-nosing.  Here’s what I’m talking about…

“You’re just the best boss in the whole wide world!”  [This is Brown-Nosing]

“Boss, I really appreciate you running interference for me by making that phone call to Accounting… that helped me get the information I needed to complete the quarterly report for our team.  That’s exactly the kind of support I need sometimes, in order to get the job done.  Thanks for the help!”  [This is Sharing Credit]

Here’s one more idea to consider: 

6.  Brag about your boss to your boss’s boss.   That kind of “back door” compliment can really be powerful and helpful – to you AND to your boss. 

Up Close and Personal

Tony Knight’s fantastic leadership as the new boss of his team was so outstanding—to his team—that several of his subordinates actually went to Tony’s boss to thank him personally for hiring Tony!  You can imagine how affirming that was to both Tony AND to his boss!

And Finally…

It probably won’t surprise you that the simple behavior of sharing credit is one of the Top Ten Habits of Highly Likeable People that I highlighted in a special report of that title. That report is filled with simple, but powerful insights to help you have greater influence and impact as a leader. You can access it HERE.

And if you’re looking for more great ideas to fuel your success and the success of your people, then STAY TUNED to future posts of this blog!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!