{"id":6071,"date":"2018-04-07T06:39:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-07T11:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=6071"},"modified":"2018-04-07T06:39:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-07T11:39:00","slug":"are-you-hurting-your-leadership-by-withholding-credit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2018\/04\/07\/are-you-hurting-your-leadership-by-withholding-credit\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Hurting Your Leadership by Withholding Credit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u00a0happens all the time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll find yourself in a planning session with a group of leaders, when all of a sudden someone will use\u00a0one of the well-worn leadership axioms, \u201cWell, just think of what our team can accomplish if no one cares who gets the credit!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That quote is usually attributed to Harry Truman.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, with respect to both Truman and this leader who quoted him, this sentiment is\u00a0just wrong. And living by this axiom can be hurting your leadership.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It really does\u00a0matter who gets the credit.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The sentiment underlying the statement is noble enough. The idea is that we don\u2019t want our cultures to be infected by grandstanding players, vying for individual attention.\u00a0True enough. There’s no place for attention-seekers and self-promoters on a healthy team.<\/p>\n

But the idea that you, as a leader, ought to be unaware as to who keeps coming up with your team\u2019s best ideas is not in the best interest of your team, your culture or your leadership.<\/p>\n

It really does matter who gets the credit.<\/h2>\n

You need to know the relative strengths of your team players. You need to know who it is who is consistently, and disproportionately, generating the initiatives that are creating the most \u2018wins\u2019. And for that to happen it needs to be \u201cokay\u201d in your culture for those top performers to be recognized.<\/p>\n

They need to get the credit.<\/h2>\n

Jack Welch calls this \u2018differentiation\u2019. On his\u00a0website<\/a>, Welch puts it this way; \u201cCompanies win when their managers\u00a0make a clear and meaningful distinction<\/em>\u00a0between top and bottom performing businesses and people.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have bought into the idea that \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter who gets the credit\u201d step back and ask yourself these questions:<\/p>\n