I'm Louise Fletcher. As President of 
Interesting post by Alexandra Levit over on Water Cooler Wisdom.
Andrea's husband has noticed a growing tendency for professional athletes to shrug off compliments and offer reasons why they don't really deserve praise:
"Inevitably, a reporter will be congratulating an athlete on a spectacular play, and in response the athlete will blush, shrug his/her shoulders, and say something like: “I just got lucky” or “the other guy/team had an off night.”
Andrea goes on to explain that being unable to accept a compliment may not always have the desired effect (to make everyone marvel at your humble spirit and modesty) but may actually undermine your credibility in the workplace. After all, if you tell people often enough that you don't really deserve credit for something, eventually they will believe you and stop giving it!
That said, a recent personal experience has taught me the opposite is just as detrimental to other people's perceptions of you. I help to run a group unrelated to my work. Because I am a visible figure, I am often given credit for things I didn't do alone - sometimes even things I wasn't involved in at all. Whenever this happens, I am quick to correct the record by saying something like "thank you but I can't take all the credit because so-and-so also helped a lot."
Recently I spent a significant amount of my personal time on something and - as always - when the kudos came in, some of them were directed at people who had not helped me at all. But to my surprise, not one of those 3 people said "thanks but this wasn't actually my work, it was Louise's." One of them even basked in the praise a little!
The morale of the story is to accept compliments graciously when they are merited, so that your worth is cemented in people's minds, but to also be quick to share credit when you don't deserve the praise. Both will ultimately improve your standing with peers, managers and subordinates.
The issue of sharing praise becomes even more important when you are a manager yourself, as this can be very empowering for the people working in your team.
Posted by: Rachel | June 25, 2007 at 03:35 PM
I'm working with a client right now whose boss is only too happy to take the praise for work that she has done. However it is starting to backfire: for the last couple of months he has been excluding her from meetings with senior management, so that he could be the public face of the work they are doing. The other day, frustrated with the lack of any apparent action, one of the management team dropped into the conversation "now, you will be asking X to our next meeting, won't you? We can't do this without her"
It may be possible to hijack praise in the short term, but if you build a reputation for yourself you ultimately have to deliver against it, and if it's been built on the back of other people's efforts the cracks will soon start to show!
Posted by: Rob Cuesta | June 26, 2007 at 08:40 PM
Totally agree, Louise. Sharing credit is absolutely essential, as is showing gratitude and appreciation when someone has gone above and beyond the call of duty or has done something exceptionally well that has helped YOU.
Best,
Alexandra Levit
Author, They Don't Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something's Guide to the Business World
Blogger, Water Cooler Wisdom
Posted by: Alexandra Levit | July 02, 2007 at 05:02 PM