Power can make obedience look like loyalty.

Position makes it easy to misread what you are getting. People agree, stay late, support your ideas, and it looks like devotion when much of it is simply the sensible response to who signs off on things. The mistake is not vanity; it is that the two are genuinely hard to tell apart from above.

A useful check is what happens when you are no longer useful to someone. Notice who stays in touch after you or they move on.