The Art of Organisational Influence - Part 2

Welcome to the second in a series on enhancing your influence within your organisation. Please read Part 1 of the series to get the basics.

The Art of Giving Credit: Your Secret Superpower

Here's a mind-bending concept: the more credit you give away, the more power you accumulate. I learned this lesson the hard way early in my career when I was busy making sure everyone knew exactly how brilliant my ideas were. Spoiler alert: it didn't work out well.

I was coaching a person who came to specifically because he had become aware of a ‘hero syndrome’, the need to be seen as the prime mover behind anything that happened. This was causing a lot of friction in his personal relationships at work.
We talked through one incident - the EM on one of the teams went on vacation and this person stepped in to fill their shoes temporarily. I asked how it went and they said ‘everything went smooth, I am very good at what I do’.
So I asked whether everything going smooth could have been because the team was well managed and knew their job? He saw where I was coming from. Yes, he said, I will tell the EM that his team made it easy. I offered a different approach