Corporate life is more about perception than the job in a small entity. Being part of small and medium businesses the action you take have far more effect than in large organizations. The results are more visible and can impact the business faster. In large corporates the project outcome could be influenced by much more side effects and may not be as transparent compared to SME's. That is why we have far more people in large organizations that surf on the perception wave rather than creating a real value to the organization. The difficulty is to distinguish between the ones who claim success and the ones who actually deliver results. But this is your job an an executive.

As an executive you get these messages that a project is successfully completed and the sender will get a positive response. Have a deeper look on two things: 1. what is real impact of the project and does it support the bigger picture means your strategy and 2. who really contributed to the project and should be blessed.

Why should you have a deeper look as an executive?

Let's take an example: someone introduced a new software to improve the productivity of his or her team, that is great and the team may be really happy: mission accomplished? No, because the introduction of a new software piece may not fit the larger strategy and add complexity to your IT landscape, it may even cause a disruption on the end to end business process to be effective and efficient if you only create an island in the middle but the interface to the rest of the company is manual or pushing workload to other departments. Talk to experts and experienced stakeholders on how the contribution fits to the bigger picture and in case it was more a self optimization, ask yourself the question, how can I orchestrate my investments the way that they contribute to the bigger picture. The OKR methodology may be a good way to define the strategy first, strategic goals second and then the objective on the short run. But do not reward such a project.

The point is that your employees will know if someone partied on an achievement which wasn't good for the company but rather for themselves and people will understand this as the way to do business: optimize yourself rather than the company benefit.

The second showboarder is one who claims success for something someone else delivered. How often do you get the eMail that someone wants to get you informed that a project that really makes an impact has reached its goals. Fantastic, but has the messenger been the contributor? Has the messenger outlined the team who delivered and really made the contribution? Nothing is wrong if someone is the messenger but it is important that you distinguish between the messenger and the contributor. A good manager and messenger always does this and puts the right people in front.

Why should you bother as an executive? Because your employees know who is surfing on someone else's work and contribution. Nothing is more frustrating for an employee or a team to see that someone else is messaging their contribution under the perception that the messenger is contributor. You as an executive need to spot this. If you don't, people will drop the commitment to work and going the extra mile as they will not get rewarded and won't perceive this as fair treatment. You will loose talent on the long run.

Spot the showboarders in your team and get rid of them. They harm a great company culture and a high performing team. Reward the ones for really great contribution and supporting your company strategy.