Blogging Ottinger (tim)

I tell my kids that no matter what you think you are doing, you are building your reputation. For better or worse, your life is being averaged by the people who observe it, and trends are being measured.

The self-promoter often sees credit and credibility as a zero-sum game: “more for you means less for me.” He makes deposits in his own credibility bank whenever possible, and cuts off the opportunities for his coworkers to profit (cred-wise) from their participation. Granted, anyone might be tempted to try to build their reputation by advertising their skills and contributions to their bosses and clients, and maybe to the programming world at large. However, it is best to let others praise you, and not your own mouth.

In some realms of business taking credit is not only tolerated, but praised and encouraged. Some bosses like to maintain a shark tank, and consider devaluation of coworkers to be the tactics of the smarter predator. Generally, only weasels and sharks really appreciate and applaud other weasels and sharks.

It’s unpleasant to work with the guy who is trying to convince the world that every good idea was his idea, and everything that turned out okay was part of his master plan. Even if he is a smart guy and a good contributor, his self-involved and boorish ways devalue his team members and break down morale.

Your work may be brilliant, or you may instead “take one for the team” by doing the grunt work, but either way you know that he’s going to take his opportunities at your expense. There’s no real motivation to work hard if you are going to be considered “assistant undersecretary to Mr. Takecredit.”

Software is a team sport. You have to be a team player. You write your code for the use of the team, you participate in the local coding standards, you freely donate your ideas. Whatever you do becomes part of the team’s story.

Team work is submission. You submit your ideas, your effort, and your ego to the work. You “lower yourself” (check your ego at the door) to become just another peer among equals. The team decides. The team implements. You’re just another guy who did his best. Your reputation is determined by whether people want to work with you or not.

Most of us find that most of our job offers come from people who want to work with us again. Our investment in our coworkers often is returned with interest. Would we have those job offers if we’d treated other people as our supporting cast (or worse, obstacles to our career path)? Every person you step on is one more person voting against your success.

The best reputation you can have is to be a solid contributor and a good team player, teaching other people to contribute their best work, and allowing them to feel valuable in return. If you do this, developers will love you and will recommend you. There is credit and blame enough to go around in the world. The recommended path is to try to do good work well, and to try to help your co-contributors to add their best work to the collaboration.

If you’re stuck in Takecredit’s project, just remember one thing: “time wounds all heels.”

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I found this while looking for “good citizenship” information: http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/techjournal/0508_col_johnson/0508_col_johnson.html