What should I do when a co-worker steals my ideas?

Isn’t is amazing how others want to take credit for good ideals. I keep dates/times and the ideal(s) of everything that I come up with. I do not share, unless I truly know the other person can add or improve upon what I have come up with then I always use a “let’s work together so we can share the credit attitude”, which does work even if I take a secondary seat once it is out there sometimes. Always, if I do this I let the person I have spoken with know someone in upper management like my suggestion to get some additional input from “you” in tweaking this. I always make sure before I let other know the ideals that can save the company money and time I document and let upper management only know, then I suggest who would be of assistance on the project. Its not about you but how it will benefit the company that really counts.

The problem with sharing with one’s supervisor is that supervisor’s can also be guilty of idea-stealing. The best way is to make suggestions in a group setting or to provide it in writing (email)to more than one person. Although I agree to a point with anonymous about benefiting the company instead of oneself, I believe that a person receiving due credit he/she has earned is good for morale, helps make them more visible for promotions (thus the back-biting), and allows ideas to flow more freely. I have seen departments even become hostile when this type of behavior goes unchecked.

I would use e-mail as a means to convey your idea. Document your idea and e-mail it to the people in your organization who can implement it. Copy your supervisor, so he/she will know who generated the idea. You will then have a record of when the idea was submitted and any responses received.

I like the email trail. A tactic I have used is after a meeting where ideas are “shared” I send a follow-up email to the people involved and my supervisor (other supervisors as appropriate) summarizing what was said and done. For instance, “in today’s marketing meeting, I suggested we incorporate a new logo into our print ads. John then expounded on this. Sue has agreed to take on the task of contacting design artists…”. This way, as ideas are being worked out, there is an understanding that at the very least, it was a team effort and all people, including me and can get their share of the credit.

It’s true that folks will often use our ideas as their own. In some way that is flattering. In others it is really annoying, especially if they do not acknowledge us.

But think of the situation where one might spend all of their effort protecting their ideas. They might never complete any of them on their own because more often than not we need the help of others to complete them. Further, spending time and energy continually protecting ideas often inhibits developing new ones. And, an idea is nothing if it is not implemented.

Now imagine someone who has numerous ideas and chooses to freely share them. The best ideas will get developed by them or others, they will be able to move on to newer, bigger, better ideas, and eventually will be recognized as a source of ideas and innovation.

Why do so many of us feel that we’ll only have a few good ideas and they must be protected so we get credit? Although it seems counter intuitive, my experience shows that success flows from sharing ideas and efforts more than from protecting them and overtly seeking credit.