Don't take credit for something your team did

Early in my leadership journey, I made this mistake. A project shipped well. In a stakeholder meeting, I said "I" more than "we." My team noticed. Trust took months to rebuild.

Leadership has a gravitational pull toward ego. The title changes how people treat you. If you're not careful, it changes how you see yourself. You start thinking the team works for you. That's backwards. You work for them.

When the team ships something great, the credit belongs to the people who built it. Every single time.

If you take credit for their work, they'll figure it out fast. People always know. And when they do, one of two things happens: they stop trying, or they go around you. Both are poison for a team.

The best leaders I've worked with do the opposite. They deflect praise downward and absorb blame upward. In public, it's always "the team did this." In private, it's "I should have caught that."

This isn't selflessness. It's strategy. When people feel recognized, they give you more. When they feel invisible, they leave.

Your name doesn't need to be on the win. Your fingerprints are already on the culture that made it possible.