The Art of Claiming Credit
A conversation with Amy Jen Su
Long before you get recognized for a great idea, you have to say what that idea is, often in front of a group. These are those moments when we sense that what we’re about to say and how we say it might affect how our colleagues see us, and whether our idea is going to go anywhere.
In the following conversation with Women at Work cohosts Amy Bernstein, Nicole Torres, and Sarah Green Carmichael, Amy Jen Su explains how women can put their ideas out there—and get proper credit. Amy is a managing partner and cofounder of the executive coaching firm Paravis Partners, coauthor of Own the Room: Discover Your Signature Voice to Master Your Leadership Presence, and author of The Leader You Want to Be: Five Essential Principles for Bringing Out Your Best Self—Every Day.
NICOLE TORRES: What are some clues that you’re not getting the credit you deserve for the good work you’re doing?
AMY JEN SU: Here are a few scenarios you may encounter. You’re in a conversation with somebody, and you think you’re working on something significant, and somehow you sense that others are surprised—as if they are taken aback that you’re doing something bigger than they thought you were capable of. If you’re starting to sense that from your key stakeholders, that’s definitely a clue.
If you start to feel like your career is stalling out, or that you’re burning out, those are two important places to pause and ask yourself, “Why am I being passed up for certain opportunities?” or “Am I so exhausted because I’m just doing, doing, doing, and not getting the credit for it that I deserve?”
NICOLE: If you are in that situation, how do you change that artfully?
AMY S.: It begins with the way you prepare. Oftentimes we have the faulty assumption that we can just wing it. So before any important meeting, high-stakes situation, or instance where you’re going to be visible, make sure you’re prepared enough that you can look like you’re reacting on the fly. Have some nuggets in your back pocket so that you can speak in real time, and give thought to how you can drop in ideas or share what you’re working on. What are three to five things that you are excited about?
Part two of that preparation is to make sure that you’re artful in considering your audience. Who’s going to be in the room? Who am I speaking to? What do they care about? Make sure that you’re framing accordingly. For example, if I said, “Hey, guess what—I talked to five customers this week,” what’s your reaction?
SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: If we hadn’t been talking about anything else, it might seem out of nowhere.
AMY S.: Right. Sometimes when we think, Oh, I’m trying to find that perfect moment to drop in and get credit for something, it can feel like it’s out of left field for other people. I might instead say, “You can’t believe the trend I’ve been hearing this week out in the marketplace. I spoke to five of our top customers, and all of them reported that our competitor is starting to cut prices to get market share. Maybe we should call a meeting to talk about this as a team.”
SARAH: That’s so much better. There’s a point to it. There’s a call to action or a reason for you to share that.
AMY S.: Right. So when we say “claim credit,” it’s not out of the blue, with no context. Instead, I’m looking for those moments where I’m lifting up and out of the noise of my work and saying, “How can I add value? How can I share about something I’ve learned that actually helps to move the business forward?”
AMY BERNSTEIN: How do you know that the person you’re talking to—your manager, your manager’s manager—is actually open to hearing this? It seems like some people are, but then there are some people who just aren’t interested in credit, one way or the other.
AMY S.: Boss dynamics are tricky. I think the other arsenal in our tool kit then would be “shaping questions.” Sometimes there are folks who’d rather hear themselves speak—they aren’t great listeners. But we can still show up with tremendous presence and show our critical thinking by asking questions. For example, sometimes we can get too short-term or operationally focused on the activities of today, instead of having a dialogue with our boss or others around shaping what success looks like: What do benchmarks tell us? What are our options here? What are the risks and trade-offs? Try to draw them into the dialogue and make it a two-way thing.
SARAH: I got some advice early in my career: “You’ll be amazed by how much you get done if you stop caring about getting credit and just let other people think it’s their idea. You’ll be able to have a lot more influence.” Where do you come down on this continuum—claiming credit versus letting other people think it’s their idea?
AMY S.: It’s really a balance. You should think about it more in terms of taking responsibility and ownership for your work and ideas, making sure that at every moment you’re demonstrating your ability to strategically inform and be comfortable in your visibility. When we’re claiming credit, we’re really trying to make sure that the organization and our teams are leveraging us as highly as possible. For those reasons, it’s important to find a way to do it that feels authentic. At the same time, it is important to also be a team player and to know when to pick those spots.
But I’ve seen many of my clients have an allergic reaction to claiming credit, because it can be so confusing. In fact, I’ve had some clients say to me that they feel angry about it, because it feels like they’re being asked to be political or Machiavellian. So we just need to make sure that we’re not framing claiming credit as bragging or self-promotion. Instead, it’s remembering to take ownership of our work and being willing to show courage in our convictions.
SARAH: When you talk about claiming credit, it sounds less like a reactive response and more about owning your space. Why do you think of it that way?
AMY S.: Whenever we’re reactive, it can feel like you’re backed up on your heels. It can feel defensive. I prefer to work with folks around what offense looks like. As you walk through the world confident and clear on what you’re doing and the difference you want to make, and informing people and sharing your contributions in a way where you aren’t holding yourself back, in many ways—just inherently—credit is coming more than it would be in that more reactive, defensive posture.
NICOLE: Research has found that women get less credit than men for the same work, but women also get less credit when they’re working with men on the same projects. If you are a woman finding yourself working with mostly men on something, what can you do to set yourself up so you are getting your fair share of credit?
AMY S.: If you find yourself in that situation, first make sure to be proactive rather than reactive. The key thing to keep in mind is, “Am I making the clear requests that I need to along the way?” For example, one of my clients is co-leading a project with a male colleague who has a very strong and dominant personality. She’s had to be very clear and say, “Hey, it would be great to be included on those sets of calls,” or “Make sure you send me the agenda in advance, and I’ll add my thoughts to it,” or “Let’s talk in advance about who’s going to lead what part of the agenda, so we’re a united front.” So that’s the first tip: Be proactive versus reactive.
The second is that, as women, we need to be more comfortable in and aware of space. And that comes in many forms: Maybe it’s when you walk into a conference room, not being shy about picking a chair that’s in the flow of the conversation, or even at the head of the table if you’re one of the co-leads. Maybe it’s being mindful of your volume, depending on the size of the room. Maybe it’s making sure your voice gets out there in the early part of the meeting so that you can be heard. Oftentimes, people notice if you can hold your boundaries, and if they sense that you can’t, they will take your share of air, and they will interrupt you.
AMY B.: Let’s say there’s someone whose recognition you’d like to have. How do you have a follow-up conversation with that person without feeling icky and gross?
AMY S.: That one’s tough, especially when you’ve been in the presence of somebody you aren’t around often, and you didn’t fully share what you were hoping to share. To avoid the ick factor, pause and ask yourself, “Is this the right time? Was there something in the information I was hoping to share, or that I wish I had shared, that would be beneficial or important to the other person?” If the answer is no, you might just let it go. If the answer is yes, check the person’s calendar and make sure they’re showing an open block. Then just pop into their office and say, “Hey, that was such a great meeting. The point you raised about X or Y got me thinking about some additional information that might be helpful to you.” Then share that piece of information. But I do think there’s some discernment needed on whether to do that at all.
NICOLE: If the best course of action is to let something go, how do you avoid feeling resentful or discouraged that work you’ve put in is not going to be recognized?
AMY S.: I hope one of the takeaways on this topic is, we all need to stop beating ourselves up. So number one: self-compassion. We’re not always going to get this right.
With lots of these situations we’ve been talking about, there’s retrospective awareness, where we’re realizing something after the fact. Then we move from just realizing it to saying, “I don’t want that to become a trend or pattern. How do I get in front of it? How do I change the way I prepare for another situation down the road, so that doesn’t happen again?” Over time, we move from retrospective awareness to prospective awareness, to being able to—in the moment—find that right moment and put it out there.
Adapted from “The Art of Claiming Credit,” Women at Work podcast season 2, episode 6, October 22, 2018.