Being proactive when my manager took all the credit for the work of me and my team

Problem

Once in my career, I had to handle a difficult manager. He was technically savvy and used to be very competent as an engineer. He would not give credit to me or my team when good things would happen. He kept the credit as an award for himself, even though two other team members and I had been working on the project. As our promotion process involved our manager's appraisal, I was concerned that him undermining me would jeopardize my chances of future promotions within the company. I needed to act.

Actions taken

I decided to have a talk with my manager's manager. I asked for advice about how she would have handled it and brainstormed with her. The idea was to be proactive in finding a solution to my current problem. It was very important to not come across as a whiner or complainer. As a thought leader, I need to create opportunities for myself. Therefore, it was important for me to present a few ideas about how I could manage my manager better, with a little help from my director. She was supportive and tried to help me increase my visibility and influence by creating opportunities to speak up. We agreed she'd send an email to a bunch of people requesting data and advice and that I'd step up and answer those emails publicly. Having her on my side helped me to gain more visibility. It was very important to be constructive here. The goal was not to discredit my manager, but to carefully maneuver to keep doing a good job and to get recognition and visibility for this.

"Managers are problem solvers, so whatever bump in the road you encounter, don't complain. Instead, be proactive in finding a solution."

I created opportunities not only for myself, but for my entire team, to get more visibility and exposure to senior management through organized skip levels and brown bag lunch learning sessions and hackathons. It helped in getting to know my senior management team and publicly demonstrated my proactiveness as the manager of my team. The situation got better and better, and I eventually got promoted and changed to a different product.

Lessons learned

Managers are problem solvers, so whatever bump in the road you encounter, don't complain. Instead, be proactive in finding a solution. Pull people up as you try to rise. Don't step on them to rise. Step around them if they are a blocker. Your karma will eventually catch up with you, so be good. Don't burn bridges even with a bad manager. It is a small world and you are very likely to run into them again.