Reclaiming your kudos
Yesterday, a friend at work told me a tragic story of misplaced kudos. He recently delivered a briefing to management about a product he painstakingly developed. A few days later, the office boss sent around kudos for people’s recent efforts, including my friend’s. The only problem? The email named someone else as the creator of the product, not my friend. Not that it’s an excuse for the manager not knowing his people, but the credited coworker has the same first name as my friend, making the mix up easy.
My friend said everyone on his team laughed about this mistake, but no one pointed it out to the boss on his behalf. And he knew he couldn’t point it out himself without looking petty. My friend said he wasn’t thirsty for the credit so he’d get over it—and I believed him—but the misapplied credit still sucked. I told him he shouldn’t be accepting of this fate. I told him if we are clever, he can reclaim his kudos. This was my suggested approach:
First, update or tweak the product somehow. It can be a modest change. Then, reply (not reply all) to the kudos note sent from the boss, saying 1) that you appreciated the positive feedback and 2) flagging the updated version of the product. “As a fan, I just thought you’d like to see the latest.” The “update” gives you an excuse for communicating up the chain. What does this achieve? The manager gets kudos for giving kudos, which will make them feel good (and encourage them to do it more, which is great for morale). And, without ever having to directly point out the boss’ prior error in doling out credit, my friend’s name will be re-associated with the product. Likely for good.
Don’t be embarrassed about reclaiming your kudos. There are ways to be tactful about it.