“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it”, Dale Carnegie
There is a common trend in board rooms, meeting rooms, and conferences around the world. Managers take credit for the work of their teams and pat each other on their backs for doing great work. The people who proposed revolutionary ideas, worked late nights, and delivered products and services are rarely recognized. Every successful manager has one or more superstar workers who deliver time and again. What do these superstars get for their intelligence, hard work, and dedication. More work. No credit. No recognition. No reward.
This situation is obviously unfair for the workers but let’s look at it from the manager’s perspective. You can get a worker to work harder and deliver more over a short period of time. If this stressful situation persists over a long period, the natural consequence will be burn out, reduced quality of work, and more sick leaves. Neither is beneficial for the manager or the company. Eventually the competent employee will realize that he has does not have to be in this unfavorable situation and would either resort to doing the absolute minimum or simply look for better opportunities elsewhere. People don’t leave companies, they leave bad managers.
Every competent manager understands that his success depends largely on the ability and hard work of his team. It is extremely difficult to find a competent, motivated, and hardworking employee. Once you find one, it does not make any sense to exploit the worker and create disincentives for him to remain in your team. You gain more by holding on to great employees than by exploiting them to achieve short-term goals.
Be a leader. Create an environment where workers can thrive, remain motivated, and accomplish great things. Listen to your team members. They were hired because of their expertise in different specialized areas. Let them have a say. Let them work in ways that make them more productive. Get them access to training that will help them improve their skills. Help them collaborate with each other. Reduce and remove hurdles for them. These changes will help make your team the best performing team in the company. The easiest and most rewarding way to help your team members reach their full potential is to share credit with them. What you earn back from this simple gesture is loyalty. Your team members will bypass better opportunities to stay with you. They would go several extra miles for you. They would be motivated to work everyday.
Leaders understand that they can only succeed through others. Great leaders share credit. In return they earn loyalty of a highly motivated team. If you steal credit, you are just another manager, not a leader.