from the other side - I've worked for many years as either the only or the primary person responsible for delivering a project. I've spent a few months on a te

from the other side - I've worked for many years as either the only or the primary person responsible for delivering a project. I've spent a few months on a team in a project this year. The one 'adjustment' I had to make was understanding that if something wasn't delivered, it wasn't "my fault" (or wasn't my fault automatically). I missed a couple of delivery dates - the world didn't end. I pushed out some stuff with errors - other people on the team picked those up and fixed them. I did the same for others when I could. The mindset wasn't so much "I'm the only smart person in the room" as "I've spent 10 years being personally responsible for nearly every aspect of every system - and done that reasonably well - and now there's other people in the process". There's some adjustments to make, and sometimes you don't always know the best way to make those adjustments. Now, some (most?) of the people on that team had < 5 years of professional experience. A couple had ~10-12. I have 25 years. There were times when I tried to offer up my perspective/experience - not because I'm necessarily "smarter" but... if I've seen problems and know how to avoid them... shouldn't we try to avoid them, and help the business avoid those problems? Now, I have been on teams where I am the smartest person in the room (or... the most productive, or the most accomplished, or whatever). It's not like that all the time, but it does happen sometimes, and it can be awkward. Pretending that everyone has equal skill and experience and that all inputs are valid doesn't benefit the project or business, although it might, in the short term, help team morale by not hurting feelings of some people. Some of those same people might end up leaving at a moment's notice anyway (which I've seen happen - don't upset person A - they're valuable(!) - then person A leaves with 1 hour notice).