I made a mistake when I was twenty years old that has stuck with me my whole career.
It was the summer before my senior year at West Point and I was half-way across the world and half-way through a five-week internship as an aviation platoon leader.
During a staff meeting, the commander asked me about one of my assigned tasks—transporting a tug to another Army airfield. I had delegated that mission to Staff Sergeant Fletcher, who had taken care of the whole thing and confirmed it had arrived.
When Captain Pippin asked if I had gotten the tug to Gieblestadt, I said, “Yes, sir. It arrived yesterday afternoon.”
After the meeting the XO pulled me aside. “You missed a big opportunity in there.”
“Really?” I was genuinely surprised. I felt like I was finally getting the hang of things.
“Sure, you’re getting things done,” he admitted, “but, that’s the easy part.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“When the CO asked if you got the tug to Gieb, you just said, ‘yes’. You should have said, ‘Yes, sir. Sergeant Fletcher made it happen. We heard from them yesterday that it had arrived.’ If you had said that, you still would have gotten the credit—you’re the leader, you’re responsible—but Sergeant Fletcher gets the credit as well. Never pass up a chance to let your soldiers shine.”
So often, we think of praise and recognition as a zero sum game, where there is only so much to go around. On the contrary, sharing credit doesn’t diminish your share of recognition, it actually enhances it.
When you sing someone else’s praise, it signals you have an authentic inner confidence coupled with a benevolent outward focus. That’s the kind of person you want to work with. That’s the kind of person you want to trust.
So look up and around this week. Who is showing up and deserves a shout-out? Talk them up to someone important and land some credibility while you’re at it.
For Reflection: Who will you brag about this week?
Update: 97% Proposal Complete
With over 60,000 words written, I’m currently focusing on putting my book proposal together.
Making progress and getting close! Had a breakthrough this week with how to organize Chapter 1, so I’m thinking this next week I’ll finally be finishing this proposal!
10/10 Content (10%)
10/10 Market (10%)
4/5 Author (5%)
24/25 Synopsis (25%)
49/50 Sample Chapters (50%)
97/100 Total (100%)
