Work and power

Status, credit, and accountability at work

Focus on how decisions and responsibility are handled.

Educational perspective

Recognize the specific issue

Credit-taking, dismissal of feedback, inconsistent standards, and retaliation are different problems. Describe the incident and its effect before combining them into a claim about personality.

Confidence is not proof of competence

A confident presentation may be persuasive, but decisions should also consider relevant work, evidence, reliability, and how errors are corrected. Keep a person’s impression separate from documented outcomes.

Make the process clearer

Where appropriate, confirm who owns a deliverable, how changes are approved, and what constitutes completion. A clear process can address some conflicts without deciding whether anyone has narcissistic traits.

Notice your own investment in the story

If you expect disrespect, ambiguous events may seem more conclusive than they are. Seek specific counterevidence and an uninvolved perspective while taking substantiated mistreatment seriously.