In a new episode hosted by former CIO Bill Tingle, the former Saatchi & Saatchi creative executive explains why leaders who give credit away get noticed faster than those who promote themselves.
Neal Foard (left) and Bill Tingle on the Leadership Language podcast.
FAIRFAX, Va., November 7, 2026
Technology leaders are often raised on a simple rule: keep your head down and let the work speak for itself. Neal Foard has spent a career watching that rule fail.
“People often think that the work speaks for itself, but it doesn’t,” Foard said on the latest episode of the Leadership Language podcast. “If you are the person who has done the work, you’ve absorbed so much context that you’re not even conscious of.”
Foard spent 30 years shaping ad campaigns for brands including Budweiser, Lexus and Sony, and his work on Toyota put him among the ten most decorated creative directors in the world. As worldwide director of creative learning at Saatchi & Saatchi, he wrote a program to teach professionals to sell their work. Today he runs Storyfire, a communications course for executives. On the show, host Bill Tingle, a former CIO who coaches IT directors and vice presidents preparing for the CIO seat, asked him how leaders who were taught not to brag can still be seen.
His answer starts with a warning: do not make yourself the hero of your own story.
Why self-promotion backfires
Foard pointed to a line from George Orwell: “No autobiography is to be trusted unless it reveals something disgraceful.” Leaders who proclaim their own wonderfulness, he said, misread the room.
“You think that people go, ‘Wow, that dude is cool,’ or ‘That’s very impressive,'” Foard said. “When in fact, what they’re really doing is they’re going, ‘I pray you fall flat on your face.'”
The great brands rarely praise themselves, he said. They celebrate their customers, or the values they admire in others. His example was Nike’s advertising with Michael Jordan, which often dwelt on the shots Jordan missed rather than the ones he made. “In the humanization of Michael Jordan, people liked him more,” Foard said. “They admired him, but now they also want him to win.”
Give the credit away
For a director or VP reporting results to senior executives, the alternative is to describe the moment the outcome was in doubt, and the person on the team who made the difference.
“When you distribute credit like that, imagine the signal it sends to the more senior people,” Foard said. “What it says is, this is a person who supports his team. He can accept counsel. He’s not in it just for himself. He’s cultivating future leaders.”
In a strange way, he said, it “winds up bragging more about you than if you just talked about things you did.” Senior leaders already know that nobody does anything alone, so a leader who says so out loud reads as self-aware.
Tingle agreed. “Executives instinctively know that when people give credit away, they’re leading,” he said.
Foard has seen the effect firsthand. One boss of his made a habit of showing off his agency’s creative work and naming the people who made it. Later, nobody remembered the two creatives, Foard said. They remembered the boss who showed the work.
The 20x skill
Storytelling is not decoration, Foard argued. It is how numbers become decisions. He recalled a CFO he once reported to who described his pay scale this way:
“If I have somebody that can add the numbers correctly, I pay them x. If I have somebody that can supervise people that add the numbers correctly, I’ll pay them 2x. If I have somebody that can tell me what the numbers mean, I’ll give them 10x, and if I have someone who can tell me where the numbers are headed, I’ll give them 20x.”
Telling someone what the numbers mean, Foard said, is a story. For technical leaders who walk into executive meetings armed with slides and data, that is the gap.
The first 60 seconds
Foard’s practical advice centers on preparation. “The first 60 seconds is the beachfront real estate,” he said. A presenter will never get more attention than in that opening minute, so it has to tell the room why the next half hour is worth their time.
Getting there takes rehearsal, which he said most people skip. His fix is to record yourself answering the questions you expect and watch it back. “The day that you can get comfortable and not cringe too much watching yourself is the day you turn pro,” he said.
Tingle, who works with job-seeking executives, called it a choice between pain now and pain later. Foard put it another way: “You can train hard, fight easy.”
Why AI raises the stakes
Asked about the job market and the age of AI, Foard named the skill he would bet on. “I think in the age of AI, the biggest skill you can have is learning how to make allies,” he said. Leaders who celebrate colleagues publicly, on LinkedIn or anywhere else, signal that they know how to return a favor.
The episode extends a thread running through recent Leadership Language conversations. AdventHealth regional CIO Tony Qualls described technology organizations promoting strong engineers without preparing them to lead. DEX Imaging CIO Patrick Adesso argued that AI is commoditizing technical work, and author Chalmers Brothers made the case that a company’s results depend on the quality of its conversations. Foard adds the next piece: how a leader tells the story of the work, and who gets the credit in it.
“You’re the protagonist of your own story,” Foard said. “Not necessarily the hero.”
Listen to the full conversation with Neal Foard on the Leadership Language podcast.
Quotes have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
About the Leadership Language podcast
Leadership Language is hosted by former CIO Bill Tingle and features sitting and former technology executives and leadership experts talking about the human side of leading in IT: influence, communication, relationships and the decisions no one trains you for. Recent guests include Storyfire founder Neal Foard, author and executive coach Chalmers Brothers, Patrick Adesso, CIO of DEX Imaging, and Tony Qualls, regional CIO at AdventHealth. The show is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Technology executives interested in appearing as a guest can reach the show through tingleleadership.com.
About Bill Tingle
Bill Tingle is a former CIO, CIDO and CTO with 35 years in enterprise technology, including nearly two decades at Enterprise Mobility. An ICF Professional Certified Coach, he has coached more than 200 technology leaders and now works with IT directors and vice presidents preparing for the CIO role. More at tingleleadership.com.
About Neal Foard
Neal Foard is the founder of Storyfire, a professional-level communications course for ambitious executives. He spent 30 years shaping award-winning ad campaigns for brands including Budweiser, Lexus and Sony, and for his international work on Toyota was listed among the top ten most decorated creative directors in the world. As Worldwide Director of Creative Learning at Saatchi & Saatchi, he authored a program to teach professionals to sell their work more effectively. He consults with Fortune 500 companies, universities and governments on persuasive messaging, has spoken on the TEDx stage, and is known to millions for his videos celebrating everyday human kindness.
Media contact
Bill Tingle Media
