One lesson that separates the truly successful from the perpetually frustrated is the understanding that your ego is the biggest obstacle standing between you and your goals. Harry Truman supposedly said, “You can get anywhere you want in life as long as you don’t care who gets the credit,” and nowhere is this truer than in the world of business.
Most professionals have been in a situation where someone they work for took credit for their work. For most, the first instinct is outrage. To pour everything into a project and watch someone else bask in the praise is difficult. This type of behavior destroys trust within a team.
Early in my career, I worked on an important pleading on a big case. When the partner I did the work for took credit for the pleading during a call with the client I initially was frustrated and the partner sensed it. After the call was over, he told me how much he appreciated my work. He also told me that even though I did the work he felt it was important for the client to think it was his work, which didn’t make sense to me. I made sure to remember this later when I had younger attorneys working on cases for my clients and to always give them the credit for their work when speaking with clients and others we worked with.
People who focus relentlessly on results rather than recognition are the ones who become indispensable. When you’re known as someone who elevates everyone around you without demanding a spotlight, opportunities find you. Clients trust you. Co-workers want you on their matters or to work for you. Your reputation becomes about substance rather than self-promotion.
Professional success is a long game built on compounding trust and demonstrated value. The professional who lets someone on their team make an important presentation or a young attorney do an oral argument instead of doing it themself is creating a culture where talented people want to stay and contribute. Real influence comes from being the person everyone knows gets things done. When you stop keeping score of who did the work, you free yourself to focus on what matters, which is building a strong team, and sharing in success together.
As always, this post and others can be found on my blog, Business Law Guy.