How to Respond When No One Gives You Credit

Written By Lisa Marley

Have you been feeling like all of your contributions and achievements have been ignored recently? It can be really upsetting when you feel like people aren’t noticing your efforts. Here are 18 ways you can respond if people aren’t giving you enough credit.

Celebrate Your Own Achievements

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Do you really need to seek validation from other people? Not necessarily – PsychCentral describes how self-validation can be even more valuable than external validation because it’s always available to you! Work on celebrating your own achievements, and be your own biggest cheerleader!

Politely Mention Your Contributions

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People might simply not have seen what part you played in the project; sometimes, it’s difficult to work out who did what. If you want, you could calmly point out the things that you achieved. Just make sure to use “I” statements so that you don’t sound like you’re making accusations.

Speak Up in Meetings

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Team meetings are a great place to share what’s been going well for you and talk about any accomplishments. Instead of sitting back and letting others talk, get your voice heard! You’ll help inspire others, and people might also be able to provide some feedback.

Document Your Achievements

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You don’t need to shout about your achievements on every occasion; you can write them down instead. You could keep this document to yourself to track your own successes or share it during performance reviews to get some credit for your hard work.

Network Within the Organization

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Having good networking skills can be key to getting jobs done better; as Forbes puts it, networking “serves as an avenue to create long-term relationships with mutual benefits.” If you know useful people, you can complete projects to a higher standard, meaning more opportunities to receive recognition.

Give Credit to Others

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As they say, what goes around comes around! If you create a more positive culture at work, where people compliment each other’s achievements, you’ll start to benefit from this as well. Find out what your colleagues have done well recently and make an effort to publicly congratulate them.

Seek Feedback from Peers

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I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if you’re not currently getting a lot of credit, it might be because your work is missing the mark. Start asking your teammates for their feedback and perspectives so you can improve your work. You’ll probably get some compliments in the process, too!

Find a Mentor

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Have you thought about finding yourself a work mentor? According to Harvard Business Review, being proactive about finding a mentor can really boost your career. Not only will this make you more likely to get seen, but your mentor will also be someone who can give you kudos on your accomplishments.

Talk to Your Manager

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Having a private chat with your manager doesn’t have to be scary. If you share how you’re feeling, you might find out why you’re not receiving as much credit as you’d like. You could also suggest ways to improve celebrating achievements across the team in the future.

Highlight Your Unique Skills

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Start putting yourself forward for things that require your unique skill set, taking a more active approach to getting involved. This sort of mentality is sure to get you noticed, and you’ll also be involved in more projects that you could receive credit for.

Use Social Media

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Social media is a great place to get some external validation. Start sharing your work achievements on sites like LinkedIn and tagging other members of your team to show their involvement. As Buffer points out, social media also creates opportunities for networking, which helps to improve future success.

Ask for Opportunities to Lead

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You might not be getting a lot of credit in projects because you’re taking a backseat, so your achievements blend into the work as a whole. If you want more visibility, why not take the lead a bit more? Put yourself forward for leadership roles and show what you can really do!

Request Formal Recognition

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When you have your next performance review, you could ask for your achievements to be recorded. Alternatively, when your team is writing the report after a project, you could mention your individual contributions and ask for them to be mentioned.

Provide Constructive Feedback

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Be the change you want to see – if you feel like you aren’t getting enough credit at work, other people probably feel the same. Don’t just keep complaining that people don’t recognize what you do; instead, start suggesting ways that your team can applaud each other.

Create a Personal Brand

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You might be part of a team at work, but you’re also an individual – so use this to your advantage! Get yourself known throughout the organization based on your strengths; for example, if you’re an Excel genius – offer your services! People will call on you to help – and you’ll get all the credit!

Stay Consistent

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Don’t drop the ball now! Make sure you keep delivering consistently high-quality work, even if it doesn’t seem like anyone is paying attention. You’ll probably find that, over time, people recognize more and more of your skills, and your dedication will speak for itself.

Suggest Personal Evaluations

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If your team has a debrief at the end of a project, why not suggest going around and having everyone say a couple of things that they contributed to the end result? This way, each person’s individual effort will get recognized, and you’ll have an opportunity to share your achievements, too.

Use Data to Show Your Impact

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If you really want to demonstrate how much of a contribution you made to a project, collect numerical data that shows the results of your work. No one can argue with these sorts of facts and figures, so they’re great to include in reports to show just how valuable your efforts really were!

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