This is the leadership corner: where we examine signal traits, qualities and characteristics that make you stand out as a competent leader of self and others. In this edition, we would be looking at the most basic of all leadership qualities; the ability to describe accomplishments — who did what and how was it done? The figurative dance of “I” and “We” as it pertains to team and organizational outcomes.

First a caveat; no one really achieves anything of measurable worth alone, contrary to popular media and opinions that may make us think otherwise. To give a situational example, when I see or hear learners complain that a professor never taught them anything of worth and how everything they learned was all on their own, I think “At least they gave you a structured syllabus to guide you on topics you needed to learn to be deemed competent in that subject matter.”

Having sat on interview panels where candidates are disqualified for having used “I” or “We” too often for some of the interviewers, I am very aware of the consequences of not learning to dance this delicate dance and do it well.

It’s interesting that in a society that ranks as high on individualism as the one we live in, candidates who use “I” indiscriminately in conversations and interviews tend to put others off. For one, it goes to show that humans by nature are collaborative and team-oriented if left to our dealings. We are social beings by nature and as a result, there is an unspoken understanding that cooperation will keep you in the tribe. This is what happens on a primal level, where people who use “I” a lot are deemed uncooperative and selfish and are subsequently disqualified from joining the tribe.

So what do you do if you have been the team lead and key decision maker for so long and are transitioning to a more horizontal team structure with consensus decision making? Or you are moving from a more consensus-based environment to one where you have to be responsible for making more decisions and leading the implementation of those decisions?

I say it’s all in the language. If you are interviewing for a position, don’t fear owning your leadership or the leadership role you played even within a team-based project.

You can couple the We and the I to give the team credit and also highlight your own contributions. This is also where you as a leader can highlight your delegation and collaborative skills by stating how you facilitated the process of ensuring alignment of stretch roles and assignments for members of your team. This can help highlight you as a true people developer and collaborator. And most importantly, everyone gets credit somehow.

Learning to balance the relationship between the royal We and I takes practice. On the one hand, you do not want it to appear as though you never contributed anything to the team and organization, but you also do not want to make it appear like you did all the work, since that is simply untrue — and savvy interviewers latch onto this quickly.

Working on the premise of our initial caveat — remembering to own your failures and give credit to others when and where due is one simple way to avoid the think-traps of rugged individualism and do-it-yourself ideologies.

While we talk only about the language of leadership within the context of interviewing, don’t forget to balance out your cover letters in terms of moderated use of “I” and “We.”

Remember, you can always ask peers and trusted mentors to look through your documents and give you targeted feedback in this area.