4 Ways To Get The Credit You Deserve at Work
There are few things more frustrating than working hard on a successful project, only to have some coattail-rider steal your thunder and claim credit for it. Unfortunately credit-stealing is widespread throughout offices everywhere. "People tend to take credit from one another, to overestimate how much credit they deserve, to underestimate how much credit others deserve, and to consistently demonstrate a broad pattern of self-serving biases," says Ben Dattner, the principal of Dattner Consulting and author of The Blame Game: How the Hidden Rules of Credit and Blame Determine Our Success Or Failure.
In a previous story on getting promoted, I wrote about how important it is to keep track of your successes and to mention them when appropriate, and this is relevant for garnering credit for your work in general. Depending on office culture and your relationship with your manager and HR, this can be done through regular check-in emails or at a formal review. Then, try these four tips from Dattner to make sure you're getting the credit you need (and deserve):
1. Realize the Economy Is Making Credit-Stealing More Common Who isn't stressed at work these days? This tension in the office can make credit-hogs more aggressive, says Dattner: "Under stress, people revert to their default modes of credit-taking and blame-casting. Unfortunately, it's when it's most important that people pull together and focus on the common good that they tend to be most self-serving." Managers and organizations need to focus on encouraging teams to work together on the long-term goals of the company. And individuals need to be aware that this is easier said than done.
2. Stop Thinking About Just Getting Your Due You don't want to simply put your head down and hope to get noticed, but let your day-to-day work stand for itself, says Dattner: "The best long-term strategy is to focus on your real contributions, how much value you truly add, rather than getting preoccupied with how much public credit you receive in the short term." This will prevent you from looking like the very credit hogs you're trying to defuse.
3. Set Lofty Goals -- and Publicize Them If you're looking to get noticed, aim for big successes. "Set ambitious, stretch goals for yourself, and share them with your boss at an opportune time, such as during a performance review," Dattner advises. And you'll want to pick projects that highlight your unique skills. "If you are able to achieve the goals that you and your boss have agreed would be challenging, he or she is more likely to give you credit for having done so than if you achieve less-ambitious goals," says Dattner.
4. Be Generous When Crediting Others Being miserly about giving credit, and mentioning every small success of your own, can backfire because others will notice that you're all about making yourself look good above them. "People who take a more generous approach and share credit in the short term, end up creating more loyalty, trust, and reciprocal alliances, thereby receiving more credit over the longer term," says Dattner. In other words, give credit unto others and they'll give credit unto you.
Has anyone ever taken credit for something you've done at work? What did you do about it? Please sign in below and share.
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