Don't steal their thunder

I was in a conversation with an HR person today and the topic turned to good and bad coworkers.  The conversation brought me the following memory:

"I was part of a team of four that was working on a new strategy for the company. We worked for several days putting together a document that would help launch the strategy effort  and sent it to the VP in charge of the new strategy. The VP, who didn't really help with the document, changed a few words and sent a message to the CEO and others saying that HE worked on the document ALL NIGHT and asking them for feedback. We would have never learned of this, if not for the fact that the CEO sent a reply to the whole team saying that the document was brilliant and thanking HIM for the effort"

We were speechless. He had passed our work as his own! Nobody, but me, in the team confronted the VP and he ended up taking the glory (and later, a promotion). Our associated continued for several years, and I never forgot the incident. I was very cautious as to what material I sent him, and always made sure that people who needed to know were CC'd.
My takeaways are:

1. Always make sure to let the right people know the job you are making - there is nothing wrong with proper self promotion.
2. Give credit where credit is due. People will ALWAYS remember if you steal their thunder.
3. When in this situation, confront the person. Don't shy away from establishing your role in the effort. It is not humility to let somebody steal your credit.

Has this ever happened to you? How did you manage/resolve it?

Blog post for Author's Globe & customer's rights

The blog post for Author's Globe was published yesterday here . It was a tremendously informative conference by Dan Ariely. I had a lot of fun writing the post.

On a separate note, I have been having a difference of opinion with a service provider and wanted to share it with you. The situation is this, I have contracted a series of services from provider "A", and for the past 3 months one of the services has been unavailable, after a lot of going back and forth I found out that the service in question is subcontracted and the reason for the lack of availability has been that the service provider "A" hasn't been paying the subcontractor - according to service provider "A", they forgot to pay (for two months the story was very different and I did everything I could to help restore the service). Now, service provider "A" has paid his past dues and the service will be restored in the future (there is a built in one month delay to reactivation).

After learning all of this I substracted the amount for the services that I did not receive from my next payment and informed service provider "A" of the adjustment. The amount substracted is less than 5% of the total service bill. Service provider "A" is now in a tiffy as to the amount substracted - mind you that he didn't complain about getting paid for services he was not providing.

This situation got me thinking: What are your customer's rights? Does your company offer a customer's bill of rights? Explicity stating what your customer are entitled to (friendly customer service, 24 hour response to inquiries, automatic deductions from lack of service provided) will help create trust in the relationship . Think about how you are today defining your relationship with your clients; and how clear statements about how you are offering to treat your customer would go a long way to create a mutually beneficial association. In this case, service provider "A" has ensured that I know he is not interested in keeping me as a customer, and that I will be looking at every aspect of the service and payments with a magnifying glass. Ours will not be a relationship with trust in it, and may end up being cut short as a result.

Three quick notes

I will be guest blogger at the Author’s Globe blog – my blog entry will be published on Monday May 10th. The conference I will be blogging about is: Predictably Irrational: Hidden Forces Shaping your Decisions given by Dan Ariely from Duke/MIT and is on May 7th at 12 PM.

I will publish a longer post later but I just have to comment. The economy is still creating unusual situations: a friend of mine was told they didn’t have any projects for him anymore… after only three weeks on the job. How would you explain that at your next job interview? In your company, who is in charge of determining resource acquisition and demand? Also, I have learned of another IT executive leaving Miami for colder beaches (North Carolina). Need to find a way to stop the brain-drain affecting the area.

Last, but not least. I will be becoming a Venture Coach for the The Launch Pad at the University of Miami. The Launch Pad is a UM program for promoting and helping entrepreneurship in the area. (Hopefully) I will be coaching several of their startups. Helping new companies find their way is a great way to keep your edge. Will keep you posted.