A belt only tells you how long you’ve kept showing up. How you treat beginners tells the rest.

Rank mostly records attendance and time, which is worth something and is not the same as character. The clearer signal is what you do with the person who cannot do it yet, when there is no advantage in being generous. Anyone can be gracious upwards. How you behave towards people below you in a hierarchy is the part that tells you who somebody is.

Find the newest person in whatever you do and give them something specific this week: a name, a correction, a place to stand. Keep it brief and leave the lecture out. If you are the beginner, notice who does this, because they are worth staying near.