Israel Business Management

There was a wonderful commercial that ran on TV in the United States for FedEx (the shipping and logistics company).

You can see it here:


How many times have you had a good idea "stolen" by a manager? Now, how many times have you taken credit for one of the ideas or programs of someone on your team? Do you really know who has the good ideas on your team?

If you are taking credit for work done by someone on your team or one of your reports. STOP!!! This is not ethical and can be a career-ending decision if your manager finds out. On the positive side, if you do not take credit for their work, you can look like a mentor and an enabler of a great team and gifted talent.

If you currently manage someone that seems to be taking credit for what others do on your team, this needs to be confronted immediately. This is the opposite of the team atmosphere that you are charged with creating.

What can you do? Make sure that every individual has a task list of the items they are working on currently (they only need to supply you with the top 3 items). This will limit the amount of poaching. However, when they work as a team, it gets more difficult. Have them take notes at their meetings and hand in a version signed by all as the final copy. This will allow you to see how the idea came about and was flushed out.

Your manager is taking credit for your work. This is a little more delicate, but you can CC: his/her boss or send the email of the work as an FYI to his/her boss after sending it to them.

It is critical to remember that you do not want to embarrass your boss in any way. You can save all copies of the work and document everything. Then if your manager's boss ever tells you that he/she took credit for something - you can approach it with some humor - oh, he did (insert laugh), because I would love to show you how we developed that program/plan/project.

More to come on difficult work situations. These are more common then you think.