Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you put in the hard work on a project, only for someone else to take credit for your efforts? It's an unfortunate scenario that can be demoralizing, but there are effective strategies to set the record straight and address this issue.
This article will delve into common ways credit can be unjustly claimed, and the next one will explore strategies to respond effectively.
Common Scenarios of Credit Theft:
1. Peers who Share your Ideas. Picture this scenario - you share your innovative ideas with peers, and they either remain silent or attempt to discourage you. Later, in front of leadership, one of them presents your idea as their own, which is well-received, and they are now put in charge of the project.
2. Colleagues Omitting Credit for Your Work. When collaborating on a project, a coworker presents to leadership and consistently uses "I" instead of "We" without mentioning your contributions. It can be frustrating when you added just as much, if not more, and because they were the face of the project, they assumed all the credit, even if you were the more prominent behind-the-scenes player.
3. Boss is Taking Credit For Your Work. Imagine spending weeks developing a strategy, only for your boss to present it to his leadership team as his own without acknowledging your contribution. They were even on PTO during part or most of the planning process and were not really clued into all the details, yet they were the mouthpiece for the plan. What’s most egregious is that you only learned that they presented it as their own and gave you no credit when you had a conversation with his peer about getting promoted and they responded that you needed to strengthen your strategy-setting muscle. You are baffled because you just built the whole strategy for the next year so you conclude that your name was not attached to your body of work.
Credit taken is quite common in politics. Representative Pete Stauber voted against Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill in Nov. 2023. Yet months later, in January 2024, he bragged how excited he was to have received funding for Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District to improve 29 airports without saying where the money had come from. He aimed to take credit for other people’s hard work by bragging about something he was directly against.
4. Ideas Taken During Meetings. You may start to share an idea in a meeting, only to have your audience initially overlook it. Later, another person repackages and presents your idea as their own, receiving a positive response from the attendees. Something similar to this situation happened recently with one of my clients; she was the idea’s originator and brought in partners along the way for others to pitch in on small areas when needed. During one meeting, when she was presenting, one of the partners spoke up and added information and ended up assuming control of the meeting because all the future questions were directed to him. He provided the answers like he had been working on it from the beginning, even though he led only a small part and was not the overseer and was brought in well after the projects started.
5. Appropriation in Professional Networks. Entrepreneurs and independent contractors may face this in a professional network group that aims to support each other. You may be sharing some ideas, perhaps, a workshop you want to run, and you want to get feedback from the group. You later learn that your peer has packaged that program and started offering a version on their website without your permission. This feels hard because a lot of trust has been betrayed; you offered your ideas to get supported and not copied for others to profit. Or, if you are doing an exercise on defining your mission and niche and others have shared their first draft and they seem really unclear, then you share yours, which is well articulated and thought out and you realize as the program continues, people are now using your niche because your work has influenced their thinking. This can be quite frustrating because you put so much time and effort into getting clear on your authentic messaging and having it on your website, and they come in and try to take some of that language and shortcut the process for themselves.
6. Ideas Taken in Interviews. During interviews or proposal submissions, you share ideas on workshops you want to deliver with the hiring manager. You do not get hired for the job but later learn that big pieces of your presentation were used by their internal team to deliver the content and exercises. It almost felt like the meeting was taken just to get fresh perspectives on what to do with no intention of procuring an outside contractor.
7. Diminished Introductions by Others. Sometimes, peers or colleagues may introduce you in a reduced capacity, downplaying your role or contributions to a project. I had a client who was running a project and was designated as the primary liaison for the visiting CEO. Her peer who initially received the CEO introduced my client in a reduced capacity, basically saying she was helping to take care of some local logistical pieces even though she had a much bigger role. She has been misrepresented, and I would love to correct the record, but I do not want to seem petty.
Credit theft in the workplace is an unfortunate reality that many individuals face. It occurs for various reasons, ranging from insecurity and competitiveness to a lack of awareness about the importance of giving credit where it's due. By recognizing the common scenarios in which credit theft occurs, we can better prepare ourselves to respond.
Quote of the day: "Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not." - Oprah Winfrey
Question: Do you have examples of when somebody took credit for your work? How did you respond? Comment and share your experiences below; we’d love to hear.
The next blog in this series 2/2 will focus on strategies for reclaiming credit after a robbery.
As a leadership development and executive coach, I work with leaders to communicate effectively including strategically self-promoting, contact me to explore this topic further.
Has somebody taken credit for your ideas? What did you do?