students over geniuses
Looking like a genius might feel good but it doesn’t help your people as much as looking like a diligent student. Almost no one is a genius - the category is defined by its exceptionality. If you have power, tenure, or status greater than the folks around you, I’m betting most of those folks are going to assume that they aren’t the geniuses around here.
If your people think you get your results through the exercise of genius (or charisma, which is maybe something like “social genius”), they may set a too-low ceiling on their own growth. They’ll set the ceiling somewhere below whatever your observable level of performance is. They’ll assume they can’t be as good as you are, that they could do a lot of things but oh heavens, not that leader stuff / CEO stuff. You have to be a genius to do that.
You can escape this by putting your own growth, learning, and useful mistakes on stage. Attribute ideas to others on the team who voice them (even if you also had the idea, or had it first, or had a sharper version of it).
You don’t have to be all cute and gestural with this, either. You can be so deeply earnest and un-cool as to directly tell your people “hey, i got to this outcome through learning, testing, and growth - not through talent. I’m telling you this because I want you to do those things, too. That’s how we win / achieve our mission / live our values / do the damn thing.”
-Eric