Joel Garfinkle is recognized as one of the top 50 coaches in the U.S., having worked with many of the world’s leading companies, including Oracle, Google, Amazon, Deloitte and The Ritz-Carlton. He is the author of seven books, including “Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level.” View his books and more than 300 FREE articles at Garfinkle Executive Coaching.
Wouldn’t it be great if you worked at a company where people were routinely recognized for doing outstanding work? Where others tooted your horn for you so you didn’t have to blow it quite so loudly yourself?
A credit-sharing culture doesn’t have to be a fairy tale. In fact, you can help create one by being the person at your company who always goes out of your way to tell others what a great job they are doing.
Here are some things you can do to create a credit-sharing company culture.
Take advantage of meetings to give credit to others.
Instead of looking for opportunities to make yourself look good, try to highlight the contributions of others and let them have a few minutes of glory. When you acknowledge others, they feel appreciated. This is also a good way to balance out your own self-promotion so that it doesn’t seem like you are always focused on you.
Downplay your own contributions and acknowledge the work of the team.
As the team leader, you can promote yourself indirectly by praising your team. Everything they accomplish is a reflection on you. Even if you’re not the leader, acknowledging your colleagues’ ideas and efforts makes both you and them look good.
Encourage your employees to share credit with one another.
Emphasize the need for everyone on the team to acknowledge the contributions of others. As you continue to model credit-sharing behavior, they will catch on and begin sharing credit. This leads to a supportive work environment that produces outstanding results and success for the whole team.
Speak up on behalf of your colleagues.
When you promote others, they will be grateful to you for making the effort to recognize their work. This will motivate them to accomplish even more.
Copy your boss when you recognize team members.
If you’re sending an e-mail to a team member to tell them what a great job they did on a project or how much you appreciate their positive attitude, be sure to copy your boss so your team member will gain visibility higher in the company as well.
Tell influential people about the value that individual brings to the company.
Publicizing the successes of others allows their talents and skills to be known so the company can benefit by leveraging their abilities to the fullest.
When you compliment members of your team, you become known for being generous and likeable, and the members of your team become your spokespeople, telling others how much they enjoy working with you. You’ll find that talented people will be asking to work with you, and as author Brian Tracy has said, “The more credit you give away, the more will come back to you.”
Image credit: tomazl, via iStockphoto