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It’s the Deed, Not the Credit

In any organization, large or small, there are a lot of people who seek attention, need praise, or require credit for what they do. For some, the credit part is especially important before performance reviews or promotion periods.

It’s human nature to want to be thought well of, to be remembered for things one does, to get a pat on the back when it’s deserved. That’s all well and good, but wouldn’t it be so much better if people did their jobs not so much for credit but for accomplishment? Sure, recognition in life is important, but so is getting the job done well because that too is important.

While I was sitting at my desk in my seventh-floor State Department office in August 2001, my assistant told me I had a visitor. It was one of the senior members of the department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) unit. This was a team of federal agents whose job it was to provide protection for the secretary of state and other members of the diplomatic corps, both foreign and domestic.

He had come to ask for my assistance in arranging for a request that had come from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. He was hoping that as the chief of staff for the department and the secretary, I might have some power to influence the situation. The real power was the inspiration this incredible busy group of security agents provided. They routinely protected the secretary yet found time to nurture a relationship they had built with Make-A-Wish.

The agent told me that on behalf of a young lad, Brendan Kelly, from Great Falls, Virginia, the foundation had an important request. Four-year-old Brendan had a life-threatening illness, leukemia. He had but one wish. He had told the foundation, “I wish to meet the Pope.” They had offered him a trip to Disney World, a meeting with Cal Ripken of the Baltimore Orioles, and other amazing opportunities. Brendan’s request was simple: “I want to meet the Pope.” Could I help? the agent asked. Let me work on it, I told him.

The United States has embassies all over the world. One of them is in the Vatican. It just so happened that I knew the recently sworn-in ambassador to the Holy See, Jim Nicholson. I messaged him and asked if he would intervene. Time went by, and with that grew uncertainty about whether a miracle was possible. Finally, word came back that Pope John Paul II would grant Brendan his wish.

I had been working by phone with a Make-A-Wish coordinator. I called him to give him the agreed-to date and meeting time with the Pope. He called Brendan’s parents, and they said they’d make it.

The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity took place in the Pope’s private chapel in early September. Afterward, when the foundation coordinator called to tell me the wish was complete, he mentioned that on the day the Kelly family was to depart for Rome, Brendan’s parents couldn’t find him in his bedroom or elsewhere in the house. Their search for him led outside, where they found him still in his pajamas sitting next to the family car holding his teddy bear. He didn’t want to be late for the trip.

I conveyed to the DS detail that the wish had been fulfilled. I complimented them on their initiative. But this was not about credit as much as it was about the deed. The 81-year-old pontiff had made Brendan’s day, and the satisfaction from that happening made mine as well.

In managing people I have always found and taken the time to say thank you for a job well done. That is an important cultural tradition that one should adopt in one’s professional life. Give credit where credit is due. But don’t build into the praise the expectation that it is required. The ideal working atmosphere is one in which employees do what needs to be done for the boss, the brand, and the organization. All will reap the benefits.

Wouldn’t it be a better world if each morning as we looked in the mirror to brush our teeth, comb our hair, or check our attire, we said to ourselves, “I’m going to do something good and worthwhile today.” You may not know what that will be, but what a good goal you have set for yourself.

Then, at the end of the day as you looked into that mirror, what a sense of satisfaction you would have if you could honestly say, “I did what I set out to do today.” It wouldn’t make for a perfect world, but it would make for a better world. It really is about the deed, not the credit for having accomplished something.

In the case of helping with the Make-A-Wish request to fulfill Brendan’s wish to see the Pope, I can’t recall even sharing the deed with the secretary of state. I was doing it as much for the reputation of the State Department as for him. That was something he would have naturally expected out of his team.