Theres an old joke in business: So a manager shows up to work in a Ferrari. The engineer asks him how he was able to get a Ferrari. The manager says: "You know Steve, if you work hard, put in the hours, stay focused... next year I might get another one."

Jokes like that run deep in American Business culture, but reality doesn't really work that way. If a manager takes credit for everyone's work they'll have a hard time motivating people, which drops productivity, which in turn will find that manager out of a job. Next thing you know people are telling the "3 envelopes joke"

In my own work I try to keep my desire for "credit" as low as I can. There's a pettiness about it that seems to ignore all of the other people who made those accomplishments possible. It's hard though. It really is. I think its very human to want to be credited for work, an idea, or an insight.

For me, I like to focus on the larger outcomes- Who have you helped? If the outcomes really are the results of YOUR work, you won't need to tell someone that it was yours, they will know its yours. High performance has a style about it. And for those who haven't heard the old Steve Martin quote let me be the first to say it this one is worth tattooing on your forehead: "Be so good that they can't ignore you."

For other people though I think its important give them credit for their work. And more importantly for the QUALITY of their work. It means a lot to people to acknowledge the toil. The time they exchange for something is the most valuable thing they have. And quality, like character, is sold short in our society.

Giving and taking credit for work, or execution is different than taking credit for the idea or insight. There are ideas, insights, etc that are owed our deep reverence but those will be far and few between in your average American corporation. Original ideas are incredibly rare, almost all ideas we share are coming from somewhere else. Maybe a book, a talk, a show, osmosis, people you spend time around, and so forth. So when the opportunity comes up for you to share an idea, if you are passing the idea off as yours... you are being intellectually dishonest. Its analogous to buying a power tool for a job where people were doing it by hand.