New managers often assume respect comes from having every answer. It doesn't. Drawing on personal experience and strengths-led consulting work, this piece argues that listening properly, deciding without full certainty, and owning what happens next, even when the decision is wrong, is what actually earns lasting credibility with a team.

A few years ago, I was working with a software developer who was exceptional at his job. When his employer promoted him to software manager, it looked like a natural reward. Within months, he was struggling in ways he had not anticipated. What he was experiencing was not a competence gap. It was an identity crisis, and one that organisations create all the time without realising it.