Savvy leaders know that a way to inspire employees is to extend credit to individuals. Recognition contributes to employee motivation and produces job satisfaction.

Sounds simple, right? But what usually takes place is managers don’t recognize workers. Management doesn’t recognize the people who came up with a concept. They overlook those workers who helped a program grow and blossom into a company success. Certainly, a worst transgression a leader can do is taking credit for an idea and the work of others. This shameful behavior is demoralizing and results in low morale.

Dr. Sachin H. Jain of Harvard Business Review explains how to handle dilemmas with assigning credit in the article “The Importance of Giving Credit.” Dr. Jain has developed these rules through his experience in leading teams so he is speaking from firsthand experiences.

The Importance of Giving Credit

Virtually everyone has experienced or witnessed instances in which credit was assigned in an unfair manner: managers unabashedly took credit for the work of their invisible hard-working staff; quiet performers were inadequately recognized for their contributions; credit was assigned to the wrong individuals and for the wrong things. If a company reliably assigns credit to deserving individuals and teams, the resulting belief that the system is fair and will honestly reward contributions will encourage employees to give their utmost. Read the rest of the post… hbr.org

I have always held that giving proper credit at work is key to everyone’s success and develops high-performance teams. Knowing how to recognize employees is among the top ten characteristics of an effective leader.