Telling someone their idea was better than yours, in front of others, is confident, not weak.

Only people who feel precarious need to win every exchange in public. Saying plainly that somebody else’s idea beats yours signals the opposite: you are not worried about your footing, and you are more interested in the outcome than the credit. It has a second effect too. Once people have seen you concede honestly, your praise starts to count for something.

Do it once out loud this week, with the person’s name in it. Not a vague admission that other views exist, but a specific sentence about whose idea was better and why.