An “I” and a “we”

So much of this work is about balance, about finding your place on the spectrum. This is to avoid the imbalance of sitting on either extreme.

Some people claim all the achievements for themselves. They take full credit, rarely acknowledging the team that actually executed, the heavy lifting, the late nights. And those teams? They get frustrated. I know, I hear their stories. Their contributions go unrecognized while someone else takes the bow.

Then there are people on the other end of the spectrum who give all the credit away. “Oh, it was my team. They did everything; I just facilitated it.” And while that sounds humble, it’s actually dishonoring to themselves. It erases their contribution, their strategic thinking, their vision, and their ability to orchestrate and guide.

Most of us were taught to sit on one side or the other. Be humble or be confident. Acknowledge others or claim your worth, as if we have to choose.

I heard someone say something today that captured this perfectly: “I really need to make sure I have an ‘I’ and a ‘we’ in claiming my achievements.”

An I and a we.

You can acknowledge your strategic vision AND your team’s brilliant execution. You can own your contribution without diminishing theirs. You can say “I led this initiative and we brought it across the finish line together” without it being a contradiction.

Honoring self while respecting others.

Both things can be true at the same time. The balance isn’t about splitting credit down the middle or calculating percentages. It’s about speaking the full truth of what happened, which almost always includes both your contribution and theirs.

An I and a we. That’s where the balance lives.