Here's how you can deal with a boss who steals credit for your ideas or work in product innovation.

Dealing with a boss who steals credit for your work in product innovation can be challenging. Document everything to protect your contributions. For example, I faced a similar situation recently. I started keeping detailed records of my work, including emails, meeting notes, and project updates. When presenting ideas, I used shared documents with version control to track changes and contributions. This made it clear who was responsible for each idea and achievement. By maintaining thorough documentation, I was able to demonstrate my contributions to senior leadership, which eventually led to proper recognition and credit. This approach ensures your hard work is acknowledged and helps maintain your professional integrity.

Creating open dialogue early in your relationship with your manager is important. Learn how ideas, deliverables, and outcomes in product innovation will be viewed and how credit is applied. Share how you want to contribute and be recognized for your part and understand what that looks like in the organization you are delivering for.

One way you can leverage allies for your product innovation efforts is to get their buy-in on the work contributions you are making. Become visible, share, and the recognition will follow.

Talk with mentors or HR professionals for guidance and assistance. When making your case, it's important to stick to the facts and emphasise the significance of owning ideas for personal and company development. Present concrete proof of your contributions and highlight the positive impact of acknowledging ideas on promoting innovation and motivation in the workplace. Try to avoid making the situation appear as if it's a personal attack, and instead, emphasise the advantages that come with giving proper recognition.

To minimise the chances of your ideas being taken, make it a habit to constantly generate fresh ideas and enhancements. When you're always coming up with new ideas, it becomes more difficult for others to claim credit for your work. In addition, consistently sharing valuable ideas can help establish you as a respected and influential thinker within the company, making it harder for others to overshadow your contributions.

Understand and express to the management of the company that the theft of ideas is actually harmful to the company in that it jeopardizes the validity of the patent portfolio. For example, a misrepresentation of inventorship can compromise the validity of the patent. Therefore, explain and express to Management that your request to redress the situation is not only good for the morale and productivity of the employees, but also essential for the health, validity and enforceability of the patent portfolio.