Would you accept praise for a project where one of your team members did most of the work?

For each, acceptance would be on behalf of the team.

In a team setting, we have to be careful when placing too much emphasis on the individual. Each role, player, personality has its own dynamics and influence. And like in sports, the team would earn the prestige and the award, and each team member could hold that award proudly over their head as a contributor to the overall success garnered by the team.

Amany -

This is less of a concern in organizations which have gone through an agile transformation successfully as they recognize the need to balance individual recognition with team-level recognition.

I'd compare this to the Academy Awards. Only one individual can receive the award for Best Film, but they will always thank all the key contributors. It is fine if the PM is the point of contact for receiving accolades but they should make sure that they accept it on behalf of the team members and other contributors.

They should also make a point of recognizing their team members and (hopefully) providing good references for future projects.

Kiron

This question makes me think of the situation of the waiter and the cook.

When you go to the restaurant and you enjoy the food you would thank the waiter and not the cook. Nonetheless the way the waiter served you does play an important role on your decision on coming back to the restaurant. Still if you like the food so much you would come again anyway even if you don't like the way the waiters treat you.

In practice in many if not in most cases the PM does not directly contribute to the work being done and he does not even make work-related decision. So for the actual work being performed many PMs don't deserve any kind of praise.

However in most cases for the overall success of the project the PMs do deserve credit because the success of a project is not all about performing the work. There are many other aspects that are beyond the control of the workers and which are handled by the PM. Even if you have brilliant team members you can still fail if the PM is unable to manage the stakeholders properly.

Normally customers/clients/sponsors praise the entire team and not just the PM but even if only the PM receives the praise the other team members would be rewarded by their functional managers anyway. Also if clients directly work with the team members they would receive praise too if they do a good job.

Amany

This is indeed a great question and I am going to respond from my own personal experience as this exact scenario happened on one of my projects where we were awarded a Safety Excellence Award for the safest project working environment (That was back in 2007).

I was called by our sponsor who mentioned that we are being awarded for safety excellence and requested that I attend the ceremony and get the award on behalf of the company.

The first thought that crossed my mind is that it’s true I did manage the project but without the commitment and effort of the diligent people on-site, this wouldn’t have happened so I put myself in their shoe, gave it a thought and went to the sponsor with a suggestion:

1- Given the limited number of seats in the ceremony, every main contractor had two seats only so I proposed in our brief speech we commend the people who actually did the job and tape it on video.

2- Suggested to do a small celebration in the project, invite those who put their utmost efforts and dedication to make this happen, display the award ceremony on video so they all see it and know their efforts weren’t gone unnoticed and then award them with a project in-house excellence certificate.

We made this happen and you know what ? I was overwhelmed with the positive feedback received and how much this small act boosted everyone’s morale and motivation. They started coming to the job site because they love to, not because they have to and that made a big difference.

In conclusion, always focus on TEAM: Together We Achieve More !

RK

Hi Amany Good question .
From my perspective the answer is simple .

If I were in the situations you mention , I will reach out to whoever is giving the award or accolades and mention to them and in front of everyone that this outstanding individual did an outstanding job and was ably supported by the team in achieving this successful outcome and the whole team well and truly deserve the award for the successful project.

I would be gracious in accepting that I am thankful to be given an opportunity to work alongside this "high achieving" team and being an enabler and supporting them along the way as a Servant Leader

@Rami, thank you for sharing your own personal experience! What a great outcome that ensured balance, displayed a high level of respect. responsibility, honesty and fairness! This is a great example of how leaders accept praise, ensure it's shared and team members are acknowledged.

Hello Amany,

1) It all depends on the context of the situation. Your goal should be to have full transparency in the team's and your own personal efforts on the project to all stakeholders. The aim should never be shaming the praise but lifting everyone up to the same praise level. Now that being said, I will always accept praise when possible. But, the praise has to be accurate to the work I did. I wouldn't accept praise if they said I single handedly completed the project myself, it's all context.

2) My response to the second question would be very similar to my first. The goal is for everyone to get an award and to lift the team up. Sometimes even if you, as the project manager, get an award for the team's efforts they should be happy for you. But, if this award were to overshadow the teams success or show an unfair balance in praise I would be against it.

@Amany, thank you for bringing up this matter. This situation can be an ethical issue, as it looks like it contravene the fair treatment, the fairness value (see PMI Code of Ethics). By taking credit for someone else's work one shows disrespect to the colleague who did the work, unless the work is fully and publicly recognized. With such behavior one shows a lack of integrity.

If for your organisation a rule to award Project Managers and this project was successful I think it is nothing wrong to accept being appreciated. I believe there is a reason why this PM was selected for the project and not the other one.

The question is what to do so that honor and appreciation goes to top contributor. If this ceremony is still in front of you maybe you can talk with organizators how to approach this situation ( example - invite this person as well)

Fully agree with you. That´s what I tried to say. She/He could receive the prize (I prefer to say the award) but she/he always do that as a representative of the team and she/he always will assure that is clear for all. If not then they are not a project manager or I can say they do not deserve to be called project manager.