職場雙語:老闆把好點子據爲己有怎麼辦
Dear Annie: At the company where I worked until recently, I had a couple of colleagues who were master manipulators and who frequently got rewarded for ideas and improvements I came up with. That was one reason why I left that job. But now, I seem to have gone from the frying pan into the fire. I just came from a meeting where my current boss talked about his clever new cost-cutting strategy without once mentioning that I thought of the whole thing and laid it out for him.
親愛的安妮：在我最近離職的公司，有幾位同事權傾朝野，他們經常剽竊我的點子和改進建議，竟然屢屢獲得嘉獎。爲此，我炒了那家公司的魷魚。可我現在感覺，自己是剛出油鍋，又進火坑。我最近剛去參加了一次會議，會上，我的老闆誇誇其談地講述“他”新想出來的成本削減戰略，卻閉口不提這主意是我想出來。A big part of our performance bonuses and overall evaluations here are based on how many good ideas we have, so it makes me nervous that, once again, I'm not being recognized for what I'm contributing. A friend tells me not to worry about it because as long as I keep making my boss look good, I'll be okay. Is he right? — Too Anonymous
在我們公司，員工想出的好點子的數量對其績效獎金和總體績效評估影響很大，所以，我擔心在這家公司，我的付出可能又無法得到承認了。我的一位朋友認爲我不需要過於擔心，因爲只要我能讓老闆顏面有光，那就沒有任何問題。他這種說法對嗎？——匿名者Dear T.A.: In a word, yes. With all the palaver these days about personal branding and blowing your own horn as essential career survival skills, it's easy to see why this situation would make you uneasy. Moreover, it's certainly true that a reputation as an innovative thinker is an asset worth protecting.
親愛的匿名者： 答案是肯定的。現在，許多人都認爲打造個人品牌和自吹自擂是職場生存的祕笈，所以，你纔會對目前的情況感到不安，這很容易理解。而且，“擁有創造性思維”這樣的口碑確實值得妥善維護。
According to Peter Handal, the question is, protecting from whom? Handal, CEO of leadership development consultants Dale Carnegie Training, sees a big difference between peers who appropriate your ideas, as at your old job, and a boss who takes your suggestion and runs with it.
但彼得•韓鐸認爲，問題在於你防範的對象是誰？韓鐸目前擔任領導力培訓諮詢機構戴爾•卡耐基培訓（Dale Carnegie Training）的CEO，他認爲，點子被同事竊取（正如你之前的那份工作）與老闆聽從你的建議、並照此開展工作，兩者之間存在很大差別。That's because your colleagues are direct competitors in ways that your boss is not. "You do need to avoid letting colleagues steal your thunder, but it has to be handled in a friendly, low-key way, " Handal says.
這是因爲，同事之間是直接的競爭對手關係，而老闆則不是。韓鐸認爲：“員工需要避免自己的靈感被同事盜用，但這種事情，必須採用友好、低調的方式進行處理。”One approach: Keep your best stuff under your hat until you get a chance to mention it to your whole team at once, either in a meeting or in an email to the group. "That way, there's no doubt about where the idea came from, " he notes.
其中一個方法就是：要學會韜光養晦，並抓住時機，在面對整個團隊的時候，比如在集體會議上或者在羣發的郵件中，提出自己的想法，做到一鳴驚人。他強調道：“通過這種方式能讓所有人明白，好點子的主人到底是誰。”If it's already too late for that, don't hesitate to speak up in a meeting with something like, "When I first brought up this idea to Howard, he made a really good suggestion about it…" Says Handel, "Find a subtle way to claim credit. People will get the point."
但如果已經爲時過晚，那就不要猶豫，可以在開會的時候這麼說：“我最先把這個點子告訴霍華德的時候，他提出了很好的建議……”韓鐸表示：“要用委婉的方式表明自己的功勞。人們會明白的。”By contrast, if it's your boss who's latched on to your idea and neglected to attribute it to you, how should you respond? "Say 'thank you, '" Handal says.
但如果是老闆佔用了員工的點子，卻沒有說明員工的功勞，這種情況下，員工應該如何面對？韓鐸認爲：“說句‘謝謝’就足夠了。”Those performance bonuses and evaluations you mention are, after all, under your boss's control. "He's the one you're trying to impress, " Handal notes. "Making him look smart to higher-ups and having him depend on you for good suggestions is certainly not going to do you any harm."
畢竟，你前面提到的績效獎金和評估都是你的頂頭上司說了算。韓鐸強調道：“他纔是你應該努力打動的人。頭兒在上司面前表現神勇，頭兒倚重你提出好的建議，對你絕對沒有任何壞處。”Handal adds that, as a CEO himself, he sometimes lets people assume he thought up something that really came from someone else. "If the person who suggested it is not the most popular with the intended audience -- let's say, for example, that he or she is in a department that has been feuding with another department -- then I may pull my punches and pretend his or her idea is mine, simply because I know it will get a fairer hearing, " he explains.
韓鐸補充道，作爲CEO，他自己有時候會主動讓別人以爲某些電子是他想來出的，但實際上它們卻是下屬的功勞。他解釋道：“如果提出建議的人在目標受衆中不太受歡迎——比如說，他（她）所在的部門一直與另外一個部門明爭暗鬥——那我可能會假稱他（她）的主意是我想出來的。因爲，我知道，只有這麼做才能使這個主意得到更公平的評判。”"But of course, I still know whose it was, " he adds. "Your boss does, too."
他補充道：“當然了，我知道真正想出好點子的人是誰。你的老闆肯定也知道。”Another factor to consider, says Robert Herbold: "In most big companies, by the time any idea gets put into practice, it's been modified by so many different people that the idea of any one person getting credit for it is pretty unrealistic."
羅伯特•赫伯德表示，另外一個需要考慮的因素是：“在大部分大公司中，到一個點子被付諸實施的時候，已經經過許多人的完善，所以，把它歸功於一個人頭上並不太現實。”Herbold runs the Herbold Group, an executive coaching firm whose clients include Pfizer (PFE), Dell (DELL), PepsiCo (PEP), and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). A former chief operating officer at Microsoft (MSFT), Herbold wrote a book called The Fiefdom Syndrome: The Turf Battles that Undermine Careers and Companies -- and How to Overcome Them.
赫伯德目前在經營一家名爲赫伯德（Herbold Group）的高管培訓公司，公司客戶包括輝瑞製藥（Pfizer）、戴爾公司（Dell）、百事可樂公司（PepsiCo）和惠普公司（Hewlett-Packard）等。赫伯德曾在微軟公司（Microsoft）擔任過首席運營官，並出版了《職場領地綜合症：地盤之爭的危害與治理》（The Fiefdom Syndrome: The Turf Battles that Undermine Careers and Companies -- and How to Overcome Them）一書。"The two things you want are, first, for your boss to think you're doing your job very, very well, " says Herbold. To make sure of that, he recommends asking for feedback as often as every three or four weeks.
赫伯德表示：“員工需要確保兩點。第一，確保老闆認爲你的工作做得非常非常出色。”爲了保證這一點，他建議，員工應該每隔三到四周便向上司徵求一次反饋意見。"And second, you want your performance evaluations to note that you come up with more than your fair share of ways to improve things, " he says. "If both of those are happening, you really have no worries. If you get too hung up on getting credit, it will eat you alive."
“第二，員工希望能在自己的績效評估中看到，在改進工作方面，自己的貢獻超出同事一籌。如果這兩個目標都達到了，那就沒有什麼可以擔心的。相反，如果一心只想着邀功，肯定會被折磨瘋的。”In other words, your friend has a point. "Don't forget that the goal is to move the company forward, not to get bogged down in politics and personalities, " says Handal.
換句話說，你的朋友說得很對。韓鐸表示：“別忘了，最終的目標是要使公司向前發展，而不是因爲無聊的辦公室政治和個人糾紛而停滯不前。”Or as a plaque on Ronald Reagan's desk used to say: "There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit."
或者正如羅納德•里根辦公桌上的座右銘，上面寫道：“拋棄名利之心，你將無所不能。”。Talkback: Have you ever had a coworker who stole your ideas? How did you handle it? Leave a comment below.
反饋： 你是否遇到過自己的點子被同事盜用？你如何處理？歡迎留言評論。
