She’s done it again. The Marketing Director, Jane Shaw has just taken credit for another one of your ideas. It first happened soon after you arrived in your post as Head of Sales. On that occasion you decided to take it as a compliment, a way of currying favour with your new boss and an opportunity to build up brownie points with someone who would probably turn out to be your ally for the radical agenda that you were hired to execute on - to increase individual client spend. But in the last nine months it has happened again and again. Today it was during a Board meeting when she essentially trotted out the outline of an idea that you had floated past her just a couple of days before as part of a strategy for achieving your objectives. Having said that, there was no denying that Jane sounded incredibly plausible and actually added constructively to the idea with her own input - she really knew how to get John on board!
Jane has been with the company for six years and seems very close to John, the MD who seems to hang on her every word. And you have since heard, on the grapevine, that he is due for a move. You can’t help wondering whether he would be at all interested in rocking the boat at this stage.
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A. Wait until you have cooled down and then go to her office and be straight with her saying something like: Jane, I really need to talk to you. I’m really p***ed off about you talking about my idea in front of everyone before I had had the chance to explore it. I’m actually really frustrated too that you implied that it was yours.
B. It’s just not worth the risk confronting her. Eventually, it will get out either through your team or hers that she is not coming up with her own stuff. Anyway, imagine how she feels – she knows that she hasn’t got a fresh idea in her head; she must be feeling vulnerable. If you challenge her she might react very defensively and then who knows… . You decide to keep your head down and keep having good ideas.
C. You decide to do the sensible thing - stop going to her with your ideas! Instead, you decide to go straight to John, the MD and share your little gems with him first and then run them past Jane, not forgetting to tell her that John seemed quite positive when I told him - or something similar.
D. Having thought about it you decide that this really can’t go on. It is clear to you that Jane is close to John, the MD and that she does know how to grab an idea and push it on to the next stage. You decide to go to her office in a quiet moment: Jane, I want to talk about how we use ideas between us. I’m really unsettled. The one I came to you with the other day - I just wanted to run it past you in private because I value your judgement - you’ve been there and done it. But when you then said to John the next day: “I’ve had an idea…” that really annoyed me - I want to be part of a team with you, not trailing behind you. It was my idea and I really want to be able to champion my own stuff.
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