When another executive takes credit for your team’s work, do not confront them in a group setting. Verify first whether they stole the credit or simply omitted your team, then request a private face to face conversation in their office, open with a non-accusatory question, and hold the silence while they answer. Close that conversation by offering to help them succeed. The rest of the leadership team will not judge what that person did, they will judge how you responded.
There will be times in your career when you and your team start performing at higher and higher levels, and somebody comes along and tries to take credit for the work. Usually it happens because that person is grappling, still finding their footing, looking for a way to put their dent in the universe of the company you’re both operating in.
When it occurs, it is frustrating beyond belief.
I was reminded of this recently when a message landed in my inbox from a leader I work with here in Houston, and I’ll be honest with you, I read it and thought I knew exactly who they were talking about.
Here’s what they wrote…
“We have a new vice president who started, and part of his role is operational excellence, mapping out and improving processes. Cool. This is a good thing, businesses need this as they grow and scale. We already do that on our team, but I understand the company needs it in other areas of the business.
The issue is that when he met with me and my team about some of our processes and the projects we’d worked on, he latched on to one in particular and asked us to send over all of the details, including the before and after documentation and the process maps.
That gave me pause, but since I wanted to help him be successful (he’s a new VP after all), I sent the information over.
I never heard anything back. I did later find out that he presented all of our information in the board meeting and claimed it was the first big project he’d completed, and how it improved this particular process in the business. The rest of the C-suite praised him as being exactly what the company needed.
Needless to say, I immediately got defensive, frustrated, and well… pissed off. How exactly am I supposed to work through this?”
Something almost identical to this happened to me years ago, and I’m going to be real with you… I didn’t handle it in the best way possible.
Why Getting Defensive Costs You More Than the Stolen Credit
I got immediately defensive and protective over my team.
“I can’t believe he did that! Are you serious?! He’s taking credit for work my team spent months doing!”
I didn’t talk to him for a pretty good while, and as conversations unfolded and senior leadership team meetings kept happening, there was this unspoken tension sitting in the room with us. I was holding on to it, I was frustrated, and I didn’t know how to address it because I wasn’t sure I could maintain my composure in that sort of a setting.
That tension was visible to everybody else in the room, and this is the part I want you to sit with for a second, because the rest of the executive team wasn’t evaluating him in those moments… they were evaluating me.
Composure under pressure is one of the quiet filters that senior leadership uses when deciding who is ready for the next seat, which is one of the least discussed realities in the move from director to VP.
Did They Steal the Credit or Simply Omit Your Team?
We have to verify whether they actually stole the credit, or whether they simply omitted the fact that your team did all of the work.
You might say it doesn’t really matter, and I’d push back gently there, because it kind of does. We need to figure that out because it drives the dialogue when you sit down with this person one on one, because you are going to have to.
Why You Should Never Confront Them in a Group Setting
You do not want to address this in a public setting or a group setting of any form or fashion, as much as you want to call them out in front of the rest of the senior leadership team and highlight the fact that they are incompetent and they straight stole all of this work.
It doesn’t matter.
The rest of the executive team isn’t going to care about what this person did. They are only going to care about how you responded to the situation.
Once you’ve calmed down and you know you can hold your composure, go have a face to face conversation with them. You go to their office, because that’s where they’re going to be comfortable, and you sit down across from them.
How Do You Start the Conversation Without Making Them Defensive?
Don’t open with “You stole my team’s work,” because they’re going to get defensive immediately and you’ll lose the conversation before it starts.
A better approach sounds like this…
“I’m not sure if this was intentional or if you meant to do this, but is there any reason that you didn’t give my team credit for the months of work they did when you presented that information?”
Then you pause.
They’re going to get extremely uncomfortable, I can assure you. You do not throw them a lifeline and start talking, you let them respond first, and the longer you wait the more awkward it’s going to get.
They will probably start with something like, “Well… that’s not exactly what happened.”
“Okay, can you talk me through what did happen? Because based on everything that I’m seeing, this is what it appears to be, so if that’s not what happened, please let me know and let’s talk through this together.”
They’re not going to be able to talk their way through it, and you have to stand firm. They might reach a point where they actually apologize, or they might not.
When you get to a certain point in the conversation, you can simply ask them, “Do you think this is the best approach to building relationships and trust and rapport to ensure that you’re successful here going forward?”
Then once again… you wait for them to respond.
Why You Should Offer to Help the Person Who Took Your Credit
What this conversation does is put them on notice. You are not somebody who can just be walked all over, and you’re not somebody who’s going to be okay with another executive taking the work that your team has done.
Then you ask them, “How can I help you be successful?”
It’s probably going to trip them up, because here you are putting them on notice and then coming right back around and offering to help them win.
You can almost watch the realization move across their face… maybe this wasn’t the best person to do this to, and can this person actually help me and my team be successful? Those are the things that start running through their mind, and you lean into that.
What you end up doing is taking a very frustrating situation that has unfolded and turning it into something positive. They learn that you and your team will not be walked all over or taken advantage of, and you potentially build trust and respect with them by letting them know that you genuinely want them to be successful, and that you know enough about the organization and the dynamics and the business to help them get there.
This is the same dynamic at work everywhere in senior leadership, where influence is earned, not assigned, and the leaders who move furthest are the ones who can turn an adversary into a working partner.
Should You Trust Them Going Forward?
Once they realize that, the two of you start working more closely together on projects, and when you’re working that closely with someone, you’re able to keep an eye on them.
I’d encourage you to always keep an eye on them, because if they’ve done this thing one time, it tells you they have the capacity to do this thing again. The closer you operate to them, the easier it’ll be to see what’s going on.
What This Looked Like in My Own Career
I’d love to tell you that I handled mine well, and I didn’t, at least not at first.
It took me a while to calm down, and that stretch went on for a period of time where the rest of the executive team knew exactly how much I despised that other vice president. They saw that I was able to work with him, they also knew there was tension and friction between us. He had an advocate on his side as well, a C-level executive who didn’t much care for me either, which created its own set of issues and challenges.
Once I finally sat down and had that uncomfortable conversation, we started to operate in a better place. We were able to work together on issues, projects, challenges, and situations, and I always kept my eye on him… he never did that to us again.
How Do You Deal With Office Politics at the Executive Level?
None of this is an easy thing to navigate, it’s part of the game that gets played at the senior leadership ranks, especially in larger organizations.
You can hate it, you can say the game is stupid, you can say the politics are dumb and you do not want to do it. Cool, that’s fine. The politics are the politics, they exist whether or not you approve of them, and you can either say they’re dumb and stay stuck right where you are… or you can learn how to navigate these frustrating, challenging, and occasionally toxic waters so that you, your team, and the business can be successful.
It is the same skill set you draw on when your boss makes the wrong call and you still have to walk out of the room and lead your team through it.
I firmly believe that if you go into this with the right mindset and understand that these are just skills, you can do real good for your team and your organization.
Working Through Something Like This Right Now?
If you’re sitting in that unspoken tension right now, holding on to something you haven’t figured out how to address, you don’t have to spend six months there the way I did. That’s what executive advocacy is for, having somebody in your corner who’s already navigated these rooms.
Wolf Executives works with directors and senior leaders across the greater Houston area and beyond, on exactly these moments where the right response matters more than the right argument.
Book a discovery call with Wolf Executives.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if a coworker takes credit for my work in a meeting?
Do not correct them in the room. Wait until you can hold your composure, then request a private one on one conversation and open with a question rather than an accusation. The rest of the leadership team will remember your reaction far longer than they remember the original incident.
Should I go to HR when an executive takes credit for my team’s work?
Start with the direct conversation first, unless there is a pattern of behavior or a policy violation involved. A single omission handled privately usually resolves faster and leaves the working relationship intact, and it also gives you a much stronger record if the behavior repeats and you do need to escalate later.
How do I confront someone without damaging the relationship?
Lead with a question that gives them room to explain, such as asking whether there was a reason your team was not credited. Then stay silent and let them answer. Close the conversation by asking how you can help them be successful, which puts them on notice and opens the door to a working partnership at the same time.
What if they deny it or refuse to apologize?
Stand firm and walk them through what you observed. Some people will apologize, some will not, and either way the conversation has done its job because they now know you noticed and that you are not somebody who can be walked over.
How do I protect my team’s work going forward?
Work more closely with that person rather than pulling away from them, because proximity gives you visibility. Keep your own record of what your team produced, share progress upward directly, and make sure your team’s contributions are visible to leadership before anyone else has the chance to present them.
Is office politics something I can avoid at the senior level?
Realistically, no. The politics exist whether or not you approve of them, and treating them as a learnable skill set rather than a character flaw is what allows you to protect your team and keep moving forward in your career.
About the Author
Sean Barnes is the founder of Wolf Executives, a Houston based executive coaching and leadership development firm working with directors and senior leaders who are building toward the VP seat and beyond. Over roughly two decades in progressive leadership roles spanning IT, HR, project management, safety, transportation, and ESG, Sean has guided organizations through dozens of acquisitions and integrations as well as an IPO, and he has navigated the senior leadership politics described in this article firsthand rather than from theory.
He is also a keynote speaker and conference chair who speaks at forty to fifty events a year across North America, and he works with leadership teams throughout the greater Houston area on executive presence, influence, and communication.
Connect with Sean on LinkedIn.
