Latest / The Difficult Boss Podcast with Fexingo: Managing Up, Toxic Managers, and Workplace Survival / Managing a Boss Who Takes Credit from Other Departments
Transcript
- Lucas: So you're in a meeting, and your boss presents the quarterly results. They lay out a lead-gen campaign that the product marketing team spent months building, and they frame it entirely as a sales initiative. No mention of the team that actually designed the strategy. That's a specific kind of credit theft—when your boss takes credit for work that originated from another department, not just from you. Luna: I've seen that happen. It's almost worse than them taking credit from you directly because it's harder to call out without starting a turf war. Lucas: Exactly. And I think it's more common than people realise, especially in matrixed organisations where cross-functional collaboration is the norm. The boss might genuinely believe they had a hand in it, or they might be deliberately obscuring the source. Either way, you're caught between loyalty to your own boss and fairness to another team. Luna: Right. So what do you do? You can't just raise your hand and say, 'Actually, that was the product marketing team's work.' Lucas: No, you can't. At least not in that room. But there's a way to handle it that protects relationships and still corrects the record. I want to walk through a three-step framework based on what I've seen work in practice—starting with documentation. Luna: Before you get into the framework, can you give a concrete example? I think listeners will relate better to a real scenario. Lucas: Sure. A friend of mine worked at a midsize tech company, about five hundred employees. The VP of Sales presented a new lead-scoring model at the quarterly all-hands. He said, 'My team built this from scratch, and it's already boosted conversion by fifteen percent.' The only problem was, the model was developed by the product marketing team—three people who had spent six weeks on it. The VP of Sales had been briefed on it and then presented it as his own. Luna: Ouch. And what happened next? Lucas: The product marketing team was furious, but they didn't confront him publicly. Instead, the team lead—let's call her Sarah—took a different approach. She started by documenting everything: the original project brief, the emails showing the VP was only copied on the final report, the meeting notes from the briefing where the VP said, 'Great work, I'll present this to the exec team.' That documentation became her insurance. Luna: So step one is just collect the receipts. Quietly. Lucas: Quietly and systematically. Not as a threat, but so you have a clear timeline of who did what. The second step is to build a coalition with the original team—the people whose credit was stolen. Sarah reached out to her counterpart in product marketing and said, 'I noticed the VP took full credit for your work. I want to help correct that, but I need to understand your comfort level.' Luna: That's smart. Because if you go in alone, it looks like a personal grudge. If you go in with the affected team, it's a collective effort to set the record straight. Lucas: Right. And crucially, you're not accusing anyone yet. You're just gathering allies and understanding the landscape. In Sarah's case, the product marketing lead was reluctant to escalate—she was worried about retaliation. So Sarah pivoted to step three: using shared metrics to reframe the narrative. Luna: What does that mean in practice? Lucas: Instead of saying, 'He stole our credit,' Sarah started referencing the work in cross-functional updates with phrases like, 'The lead-scoring model developed jointly by product marketing and sales has shown strong results.' She never contradicted the VP directly, but she consistently used language that acknowledged the product marketing team's role. Over time, the exec team picked up on that framing. Luna: So you're not correcting the past, you're shaping the future narrative. I like that. It's less confrontational. Lucas: Exactly. And it worked. Within two months, the CEO started referring to the project as 'the product marketing and sales lead-scoring initiative.' The VP of Sales didn't push back because he'd never explicitly claimed sole ownership in writing. The coalition approach gave the product marketing team cover, and the shared metrics language made the collaboration visible without putting anyone on the spot. Luna: But what about a situation where the boss is deliberately misrepresenting credit and the original team doesn't want to push back? You said the product marketing lead was reluctant. What if they just want to let it go? Lucas: That's a real dilemma. In some cases, letting it go is the pragmatic choice—especially if the boss has a lot of political capital and the original team is small or junior. But I'd argue that even in that scenario, you can still document and use shared metrics quietly. You don't have to make a public stand, but you can protect yourself and your team from future credit theft. Luna: So the framework still applies, just more softly. Lucas: Right. And I think there's a broader lesson here about managing up across departmental lines. Your boss may not realise they're stepping on toes—sometimes they're just excited about a result and they forget to credit the source. In those cases, a gentle email afterward can help: 'Hey, just a heads up, the product marketing team put a lot of work into that. I mentioned them in my follow-up to the team.' Luna: That's a nice low-stakes way to nudge. But what about the bosses who do it deliberately—the ones who know exactly what they're doing? Lucas: That's harder. In those cases, you're dealing with someone who sees credit as a zero-sum game. My advice is to never confront them publicly. Instead, work through your network. Make sure the right people—the ones whose opinions matter—know who did the work. That means building relationships with skip-level managers, with peers in other departments, and with influential stakeholders. Over time, the truth tends to surface. Luna: It's almost like you're playing a longer game. But that takes patience. Lucas: It does. And honestly, if the boss is a serial credit thief across departments, you also have to ask yourself whether staying is worth it. Chronic credit theft is often a symptom of a toxic culture where individual recognition is prioritised over team success. If you've tried the framework and nothing changes, that's useful information for your own career decision-making. Luna: I think a lot of listeners will relate to that. And speaking of what keeps this show going—and I don't want to interrupt the flow here—but we hear from people who say these episodes help them think through exactly these kinds of decisions. Lucas: Yeah, we do. And it's a big part of why we keep making them. Look, we keep this show ad-free, and that's intentional. It means we can talk about things like this without a sponsor telling us to lighten it up or tie it back to some product. Luna: Right. And the way that works is that a small group of listeners chip in monthly at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's not a big ask—it's just what funds the production. If the show has helped you navigate a tough boss situation or any career decision, that's the thing that keeps it going. Lucas: And it really does. Every little bit adds up. So, back to the topic at hand—I think one more angle worth touching on is how to handle credit theft when your boss is also your mentor. That adds a layer of complexity because you don't want to damage a relationship that matters for your growth. Luna: That's a great point. If your boss is both a mentor and a credit thief, the dynamic is completely different. You might be willing to overlook some things because they're also investing in your career. Lucas: Exactly. I've seen cases where a junior person let their boss take credit for a project because the boss later advocated for them in a promotion discussion. It's a trade-off. And not necessarily a bad one—if the boss is transparent about it. But if they're taking credit without reciprocity, that's a red flag. Luna: So how do you have that conversation? 'Hey, I noticed you took credit for my work, but I also appreciate your mentorship.' That's awkward. Lucas: It is. I'd frame it around your own growth: 'I want to make sure my contributions are visible as I'm building my reputation here. Could we find ways to highlight my role in projects while you still take the lead in presenting?' That way, you're not accusing them, you're asking for a partnership. Luna: That's a smart reframe. It's collaborative. Lucas: And if they resist that, you have your answer. A mentor who won't share credit isn't really a mentor. They're using you. And that's worth knowing early. Luna: So to wrap up: document, build a coalition, use shared metrics, and if your boss is a mentor, frame it as a growth conversation. Anything else? Lucas: One more thing: know when to walk away. If credit theft is systemic and your boss has no interest in changing, that's a culture problem, not a you problem. Your skills and integrity are portable. Sometimes the best managing up is managing yourself out. Luna: That's a good note to end on. Thanks for the conversation, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. Talk to everyone next time.