How to Take Credit for Your Ideas Without Seeming Narcissistic

I find it really hard to take credit for my ideas.

There are a few reasons for this, but I think the biggest is that society tells women that men are the ones with the ideas. Or rather, that men get credit for all of the ideas, even if a woman suggested it first.

Let’s take my old job, for example. Before I was even offered a job, I knew that my first goal was to redesign the website. It was bad.

However, I didn’t really know how the heck to build a website. So, once I got the job offer and started meeting my coworkers, I asked around. Did anyone have any strong opinions on the website? How did they feel about a redesign?

That’s when I found out that one of my coworkers, a man, used to be a web developer. He taught me about self-hosted WordPress and where to find the best WordPress themes.

So, I got to work! My boss loved the existing website, so I had to do a lot of this on my own time; I knew that he would only agree to a redesign if he saw the finished product, so that’s what I did.

It took me a bit of time, but once I had most of the elements in place, I gave him my pitch and he bought it! All of my hard work and initiative were worth it.

But here’s the kicker: when I announced the website redesign to the company at our all-staff meeting, I started the story with my male coworker who taught me how to design the website.

I didn’t give myself credit for all of the hard work I put in. I was giving him the credit, even though all he did was sit down with me for 30 minutes to show me what to do.

I was making my work seem more legitimate by associating it with a well-liked, male coworker.

And this is a problem. But it’s not like we as woman can just get up on stage and take all of the credit for anything; we’ll seem super narcissistic if we do that. Even if our male counterparts don’t have the same issue.

So, how do we take credit for our ideas and projects, without seeming super narcissistic?

Tell the story without doubting yourself.

You were the one with the great idea. You were the one who executed it. And that’s amazing! Don’t doubt how great of a job you did.

A lot of times we deflect the credit because we’re nervous or uncomfortable taking the credit for something. Take a deep breath, put your shoulders back, hold your head high, and tell yourself what a great job you did.