How to Improve Your Credit Rating

If you are employed by anyone other than yourself, the chances are great that you are living on credit. From time to time, you will probably feel that this credit line has run down dangerously, unfairly sapped by a greedy colleague, necessarily drained by a needy underling, or withheld by a grudging boss. You will, in principle, understand the reason for these occasional inequities. They will drive you crazy anyway.

Credit—some acknowledgement, beyond salary, for a particular work contribution—appears in several forms, each delightful in a different way. At the glamorous extreme is the sort of credit Oprah is rumored to occasionally lavish: a pair of round-the-world tickets left on a producer's desk with a thank you note for last month's ratings. We don't necessarily need or expect such extravagance, but we do long for the recognition that accompanies it.

Certainly credit can be in the form of tangible reward, whether unexpected bonus, surprise vacation, or plum new assignment. But credit is also highly sought after when it stands alone, in the form of a public e-mail, an open compliment, or—simply, quietly—specific praise from the boss for a great idea or a job superbly executed. You can't pay your mortgage with that credit, but we still hunger for it. In that universal desire, we are all puppies, and credit is the scratch behind the ears that gets us wagging.

There's nothing wrong with our wish except that the scratch usually doesn't come often enough. And worse, sometimes someone else steals your credit, smiling and humbly accepting praise for an idea that came from your brain. Then you have to monitor your homicidal impulses and decide how or whether to snatch your credit back.

Further, there is the whole managerial question of properly bestowing credit—recognizing it for the powerful motivator it is and yet remaining wary that too much of it will convince an employee to demand more cash. Credit has its dangers as well as its delights.

All this underground negotiation makes the getting, giving, and taking of credit an ongoing and complex workplace issue that is rarely discussed openly. Nevertheless, there are principles to help you navigate.

Begin by managing your credit expectations in accordance with your position. Getting credit—especially praise or public acknowledgement—is an appropriate expectation for those from the middle of the hierarchy on down. Once you're a chief of something, you can no longer expect to get very many public pats on the back. Quite simply, the work product of your group is your credit rating.

The higher you go, the greater the expectation of your excellence (in theory, at least). As one CEO put it, "When I give a speech and it goes well, no one pats me on the back, because I'm expected to deliver every time. I've moved out of the range of enjoying compliments. But I miss them."

In general, bosses quote the management party line that they are in the business of "taking responsibility and giving credit." But like all the best leadership strategies, give credit and take responsibility usually hits a snag or two between theory and practice.

For one thing, when an idea floats several layers up in a company, upper management may have no idea where it came from. Even your direct boss may have little idea when you've contributed something special. And even when she does, what's to stop her from claiming credit?

You can help your boss by letting him know exactly what work you are doing, problems you are solving, or successes you are having. Document your work as much as possible and communicate it dispassionately, in the form of goals and objectives, facts and figures. Annual reviews, private agenda meetings, and, best of all, pointed FYI e-mails will all accomplish this nicely while dodging the brag bullet.

Should you, by chance, have an imperfect manager or colleague, possibly one who is, say, wildly competitive or pathetically insecure, you will likely find yourself in the galling circumstance of watching your deserved credit sucked into his or her hungry maw. If so, you probably remember the moment.

When someone steals your credit, there is probably not much to be done about it after the fact. Unless you are willing to go to the mat with documentation, it's probably best to let this one go.

Instead of fighting the past lost battle, guard yourself for the future. Keep a paper trail of your ideas and efforts. Turn in proposals with your name on every page. Document what you do and copy your boss on compliments you receive.

Then let the whole thing go. Remind yourself of this truth: People can steal your ideas, but they cannot steal your reputation for being an idea person. Your boss can take the compliments for a meeting you ran well, but your organizational ability will be noticed over time.

If someone else is forcing you into a permanent shadow, you'll need to move on. But all of us can tolerate a little shadow from time to time. And one of the best ways to stand in the spotlight is to make sure you shine a light on others. —Judith Sills, Ph.D.

Improve Your Credit Rating

Here are a few simple principles to help you get your due.

• Let someone else toot your horn. Credit is worth more when you receive it than it is when you take it.
• If someone compliments you, ask him sweetly to put it in writing. Then keep an "atta boy" file of these positive statements.
• If those written comments were not originally forwarded to your manager, pass them on with a quick, humble note. ("Wasn't this nice of George... ")
• Take responsibility when things crash. No one wants to give credit to a person who dodges blame.
• Don't let the credit snatchers get your goat. Watch your back for the next time and communicate your philosophical spirit to those above you: "I should have made certain that I kept you in the loop about the progress of my work."