Here is a finding that runs against instinct. When behavioral researcher Joseph Folkman studied roughly 3,800 leaders, each rated by the people around them, the ones who grabbed credit for the team's work landed low in effectiveness, in the 13th percentile. The ones who pushed credit toward others landed high, in the 85th for effectiveness. Giving credit away did not make them look smaller. It made them look like the best leaders in the building.
You do not have to be a boss for this to work. Naming the colleague whose idea actually carried the meeting, or the teammate who caught the error before it shipped, costs you nothing and builds something. The trick is to be specific. "Great team effort" is forgettable. "This worked because Dana rebuilt the spreadsheet over the weekend" is the kind of credit people remember receiving.
Withholding it does real damage. A 2026 study in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology found that when people's ideas were taken by others, the resentment ran deep — but it dropped sharply the moment a colleague or a leader stepped in and named the true source out loud.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
