Give it Away

Recently, a friend was describing their experience working for an insecure and needy leader. You see, whenever anyone compliments anyone else in the leader’s presence, he says things like, “Hello, what about me?”

In meetings, the leader praises himself over the team, using the word “I” instead of “we” as in, “I was able to land that new client.”

While it’s true, in some instances, that one person makes the difference and does in fact, “land the client.” The strength of the team is often why the client is signing on.

Leaders do this because they don’t believe in themselves, so they feel they need to continually share what makes them great. It’s quite common, actually. Whether this leader would admit it or not, what he’s thinking is, I need to constantly remind people that I actually deserve my job.

Teams hate this. It’s confusing, awkward, and icky for them. It blurs lines.

Leaders: don’t do this. Instead, give it away.

Give away the praise, give away the credit, tell everyone that your successes are because of them and the work they do.

Your team will appreciate it, it will humanize you, and likely, in most cases, it’s true.