I was 18 years old, and our baseball team was on a hot streak when we showed up in Davenport, IA for the annual Firecracker tournament. My first time up to the plate I smoked an inside fastball over the left-field fence. My hot bat continued through the next few games with multiple extra-base hits and another home run. After winning the tournament and hoisting the trophy, we hopped on the team bus back to Iowa City, ready to take on the next opponent.
The winning continued over the next few games and I was sporting a batting average in the .600s. I was feeling on top of the baseball world…that’s when the interview happened.
A local newspaper reporter asked me for some time at the end of my last game. He wanted to know what was going on with my swing and why I was on such a terror at the plate. My response: “I’m just seeing the ball well. It looks like a beachball coming in.” Call it fate, call it karma, or a giant serving of humble pie. After the interview, I entered the longest slump of my life. I could barely hit a ball off a tee. It finally culminated with my coach saying “Benny, I’m doing this to get you out of your own head.”- I got benched for the first time in my life.
It never feels bad to have praise lavished upon you, but here’s where I went wrong; I became bigger than my team. Leaders are masters at deflecting credit. What I demonstrated wasn’t leadership, I internalized my success and forgot about everyone else’s role in my performance. Recognition is often well-deserved; the difficulty lies in seeing beyond it and recognizing that a lot of other people on your team or in your life have contributed to your success and deserve just as much credit as you do.
When you take all the credit, you immediately gain a target on your back. Teammates resent you, and instead of sharing in your success, they try to find a way to bring you down. Ultimately, this hurts the entire team and everyone’s performance. When you are so good you don’t need all the credit, your teammates, employees, and staff work harder for you because they understand that your success is also their success. There’s less conflict in the clubhouse and the office, results come easier, and goals are reached faster and with less effort.
No matter where you are in your life or career, there’s always someone else deserving of praise. Great coaches, great managers, and great leaders understand the importance of this concept with every interaction they have. Be bigger and better than yourself, extend a hand and bring others in on the credit.
Ben Freeman is a keynote speaker with over 20 years of experience in developing one-on-one customer relationships. He is an expert in helping businesses genuinely connect with their customers to create lifelong retention. Ben also inspires greatness in employees, teams, and organizations by providing the tools to achieve maximal performance. Having conducted over 50,000 interviews with elite-level athletes, high achieving individuals, and corporate leaders, Ben clearly differentiates the habits, processes, and mindsets separating elite performers from average, in both sports and business.