032 Credit Is Infinitely Divisible

This is Dr. Torrey. Welcome to the Influence Every Day show, where we make every day better and we influence for good. Have you ever worked with someone or for someone that always took the credit? How did that feel? What's really remarkable about credit is that it is infinitely divisible. It is infinitely divisible. In other words, if you give credit to someone else for their contribution to something, if you acknowledge what they've done and how they've helped or how they've supported or what their role was, when you do that, it does not diminish what one ounce of your credit, it does not diminish one bit from the rest of the team. It doesn't diminish from anyone else's contribution, as long as you're doing so sincerely, like it's actual credit. In other words, you're recognizing that they made an actual contribution and it was worthy of what you're saying about it, and you're being sincere and you're not overdoing it. This isn't a case of where everyone gets a trophy. There's. There's sometimes extremes where you have somebody that always takes the credit, and then you have the other extreme where they're always giving credit to everybody. A, it has to be sincere, and when it is sincere, it's magical. B, it can be divided as much as you want. Like to all of the people that is appropriate to give credit to and to give credit to those who are unseen, to give credit to those who are unheard. To give credit in front of others is actually a sign of leadership. To take the credit destroys your team. To take the credit destroys your leadership. It undermines it. It's a slow, gnawing burn underneath if you are taking the credit. So when it comes to giving credit, there are lots of things that it does for us. It. It builds trust. If you've ever worked for somebody that gives credit, especially when you're not there, and it gets back to you, what does that feel like? It feels amazing, right? It builds trust with them, because when they're in a room that you're not in, you know that they're going to give the credit. You can trust that person in your absence. It increases engagement. If somebody. If somebody acknowledges what you've done and how you've helped, doesn't it make you want to do more? It does. But when somebody does the opposite of that, when they take the credit, what does it do? It makes you want to do less. It makes you want to just sit on the sideline. It makes. It leads to gossip, it leads to undermining. So giving credit and realizing that it's infinitely divisible is an ultra powerful tool of leadership. It motivates people, it boosts morale of the entire group. It creates and supports like a collaborative culture. If you want people to work together and you can't just mandate it, you foster a culture that actually makes it feel good, that actually makes it worthy of discussion and reward, and that they trust that it will be acknowledged and, and some good will come of it. And long term, Long term, the people that regularly acknowledge others for their contribution regularly acknowledge good that is done. And those people actually slowly build, build up a character of doing that all the time. In other words, the more you do it, the more it becomes part of your fiber. Not only does it affect your reputation and the potential for we want that person to lead our team or we want that person on our team. That sort of reputation builds, but more importantly, it changes who you are. It changes who you are. It's like you talk about all this stuff out there about gratitude and, oh, we should do gratitude journaling and we should express our gratitude. Guess what? Giving credit is one of the ways of expressing your gratitude. Give the credit, share it, spread it, say good things about what other people have contributed. Now, there are common mistakes. One of those is to be insincere. When somebody is insincere as they give credit, it is all over their person. It is all over their body language, it is all over their facial expressions. It is all over their voice cadence and their speech. It is so incredibly obvious to everyone except the one who is insincere about it. So if you can't sincerely give credit, it's better to not give it because it really is incredibly obvious. So there's that. Another mistake that's common when it comes to giving credit is that there's this sort of thought or a misunderstanding that somehow giving credit is diminishing yours and it's just not the case. It is almost never the case. It does not diminish. So there's absolutely no reason to hold back. Another mistake is to be too vague in our giving of credit. If we're too vague, it can come off as insincere. If we say she was just really great on the team. No, how was she great? What did she do? What kind of element did she bring when she walked into the room? What walked into the room with her? Like what kind of. Whether it's her energy or her skill set or her insights, what was it? Be specific about it don't be too vague. It's a huge mistake that people make. Another mistake is the that everyone gets a trophy kind of thing. Okay, it's one thing if that happens when you're in kindergarten and first grade, perhaps it makes sense there. But when it comes to adults in the workplace, that culture of giving too much credit, spreading it to everywhere, I just want to give a shout out and let's give some kudos to so and so. Come on. This is. These are people who read leadership books where it says you have to give credit or give kudos and give shout outs, but they're doing it to everybody. It doesn't make sense. In fact, it doesn't feel good. It feels dirty. It feels like you need a shower. It feels. And then what's worse is if they're constantly giving credit to everyone and then they leave someone out, it's worse. It is far worse. So beware of trying to create this culture of everybody, everybody clapping and everybody, oh, great job. If it wasn't a great job. Highlight the things that are true, truly great. So that's a huge mistake, is to do this everyone gets a trophy kind of thing. The other thing is another mistake. It's not as common. The people that are good at giving credit are really good at this part, and that is to acknowledge the invisible contributions. See, a huge mistake is to overlook those invisible contributions. Those invisible contributions are the ones that make the thing work. If you're running events and, or you're a public speaker or something, like when I'm on stage and I'm doing my public speaking, giving a keynote, or if I'm in the crowd running a workshop, guess who are like amazing under the radar workers. It's the ones that were that set up the room. It's the ones that are running the audio and the visual. If you're not acknowledging them and their role, the whole thing, I don't know if you've ever been to a conference where the audio is awful. Like, we really need to appreciate our AV people when we're at a conference because they do some incredible work and when it's not there, you, you really notice it. It's like wearing pants. Nobody notices that you're wearing pants, but they'll certainly notice if you're not wearing pants. It's like that those people, those foundational, under the radar, invisible contributions that if they didn't do it, it would all fall apart. They need to be acknowledged. They need to be acknowledged. Too often they're not seen and they're not heard and they're not acknowledged. And I'll tell you, it is so uplifting for them when they are acknowledged in a way that is sincere, authentic, and when they are truly appreciated for what they do. And then the other thing about credit, another common mistake is if it's delayed, if it's too late, if it's after the fact. Have you ever seen where somebody gives a compliment and then somebody. Yeah, I wanted to tell you the same thing, that I thought you did a really good job. No, like, that's a little too late. I'm not saying don't give the compliment, but sometimes that doesn't feel as good. It doesn't feel as sincere either. So don't delay it. Like, make sure you acknowledge them in a timely fashion. Now, let me give you some practical tips on giving credit. First is to be specific, like very specific about what that person contributed. If they contributed something that was unique, that is very different than what others do, if it's their superpower, in a way, you want to highlight it, you want to say, you know what, when she came onto that team, she brought X, Y and Z. Like, it added this element to the team, it added this element to the project or this element to the work. And it was sorely needed. And so we want to just, you know, acknowledge her contribution, et cetera, et cetera. Right. So be specific about what they've contributed. Not like, oh, it was great or it was wonderful having her on the team. So I want to thank her for her contributions. No, get specific. She brought an energy that we were lacking for years. And when she came, our entire team changed. Our productivity, our morale, all of that changed when she joined our team. Be specific. Okay? Now, another practical tip is to balance being public about the credit and being private about the credit. If you're public in giving credit, one again, make sure it's not in a sea of shout outs to everyone. But if you're giving credit in public, it's ideal if it's surprising. In other words, if they're surprised, if they didn't know you were going to do it, if it didn't feel predictable that you were going to do it and you still did it, you still acknowledge them. That is unbelievable in terms of its scale and what it feels like when somebody receives credit when they did not expect it. The other is when it's private. That is often a great time to really elevate it. You know, to single them out and say, can I talk to you for a moment? And then you give a little time Pull aside and then sit down and say, or talk to them off to the side and just say, you know what? I just. I've been thinking quite a bit and I really want to thank you for your contribution. What you did the other day, what you brought to the team, or what you did. But like, you say it privately in a way that is sincere, in a way that feels important. It feels like you've isolated this moment and you've been thinking about it and you've really wanted to share it with them. If you do, that will last for months. It will have impact downstream that you can't even measure. The other thing is if you can weave it in to part of the narrative, okay, if you've built something together and this thing is not just a project, it became a center or an institute or something like that, you should weave the stories of other people's contribution into the story of the founding of that thing or the completion of that project. Weave them into the narrative, make it part of the story. You can completely undermine credit you've given before if you've given it in public before, acknowledged it at a ceremony or some sort of thing, but then later did not incorporate it into the story and ignored them in the story. When you retell the story of your rise to the leadership or the team's rise to its success, or the this, how it scaled over time. If you leave out people that you've given credit to before, you actually run the risk of undermining it now. What's really interesting about the giving credit is that past, present, future, giving credit actually has a role in all of those. You recognize the past, you recognize current contributions, and in the future, you embed it into the story. You embed it into the narrative. This is something that's really important for. For giving credit and for it lasting. The impact on the team, the trust, the engagement, the motivation, the morale, all that stuff that will last longer. If you think about it in terms of past, present and future, you incorporate it in all of those. And the other thing about the word credit is it's also a command. It's also something that can remind you. Give credit, give it generously, generously give credit sincerely, and do so in a way that recognizing that it is completely, infinitely divisible. So as we conclude, who will you give credit to today? Who will you acknowledge? Who will you pull aside and just say, I really. I've been thinking about this and I just have to say thank you. I just have to express my gratitude. I just have to say that this wouldn't have happened without this contribution from you. Who are you going to do that for? Who are you going to single out and give credit to? I'll see you in the next episode.

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