Doing everything your client asks doesn’t earn respect. Clear ownership does. I used to think going “above and beyond” made me indispensable. What it actually did was blur authority. More work ≠ more value. It often signals uncertainty. Here’s what delivering too much communicates to clients: - “I’m not sure what success looks like yet” - “I’m trying to prove this was worth it” - “You can keep asking, I’ll keep giving” That doesn’t build trust. It erodes it. What changed everything was replacing