AUTHORSHIP of success is seldom left unclaimed, ready for someone undeserving and hungry for glory to just walk in and pick it up. The proprietary embrace of a winning idea, a successful turnaround story, the gaining of market share borrows an accounting term, “credit.” It’s an asset that adds value to a person’s self-perception and status.
In sports, a medal, or a place on the podium after a contest clearly allocates credit for a victory. Even here, in the acceptance speech, the holder of the trophy in a team sport will acknowledge teammates and the coach. A truly generous winner may even acknowledge the excellence of the competition. The inappropriate sharing of glory by a team manager kissing a player on the lips, as in women’s football, can throw shade on the gold medal.
Still, the rightful claim for credit is not always so easily established.
The head of a government agency in charge of increasing the number of foreign visitors to stay and spend foreign currency in this country may grab credit for a foreign airline coming back to serve this destination. By simply announcing the decision, she grabs credit for this business move. Was she even in on the discussions?
Allocation of credit, whether deserved or simply grabbed, requires some confirmation and dispersal in the grapevine or social media.
Many successful executions and bright ideas are seldom so easily established. There is no accepted process in place that allocates credit properly. Does it have to do with chronology — who thought of it first? This is the rule for plagiarism and scientific discoveries which are published and dated in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
In the corporate and political arena, it’s hard to pin down primacy. Even dated e-mails are not reliable records of chronology and authorship, as what is written down may have been based on some unrecorded conversation or undated report. Even when someone thought it up first, another person may have made it work. Which of the two deserves the credit?
Anyway, it’s not always desirable to be identified as the author of an idea too early. When the CEO wants to pin the blame on something that goes wrong, he is likely to ask — whose bright idea was it to designate company-paid parking on a “first come, first served” basis? No one meets the accusing gaze. Does anyone own up to an untraceable release of air in a crowded elevator? (I was wearing a face mask, Sir.)
The “blame game” and the “credit race” are then two sides of a coin. Only when something succeeds can the second process begin. Credit for ideas, performance, and achievements are often rewarded with promotions and a bigger paycheck. So, this is not just about bragging rights.
Individual honors like “Most Valuable Player” in professional sports leagues are sought and treasured. The recipient of the trophy may feign modesty in his acceptance speech by saying he couldn’t have won the award without his teammates and coach. Yet he alone gets to bring home the prize and the subsequent hike in pay and trading buzz. The others must be content with a class picture, trying to look adoring.
Corporate culture too highlights individual achievement as a basis for performance bonuses and promotions and thus encourages credit grabbing as a career move. An idea is considered as much on its merit as where credit for it should go, or not go.
The attractiveness of winning, and the eagerness of many to be associated with it even just in a photo op, is a cliché. Paternity for success, however, is not that easy to establish as it requires a combination of knowing the mother (and more importantly the mother knowing the father) as well as a combination of opportunity, intimacy, and the confluence of factors synchronized with a gestation period. So, whose baby is this success? There is no DNA test for such an offspring.
Is it appropriate to take solo credit for success? Aren’t the best moves the result of collaboration and brainstorming, planning and implementation? Isn’t it more important for any idea to be nurtured and continually improved?
Still, when things go south, the blame game takes over. Murphy’s famous law states: “If things can go wrong, they will.” His less famous corollary affirms, “When things go right, the wrong person gets the credit” … until this is contested.
Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda
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