On a new team, nobody knows you were captain before. Earn it again. That’s how you find out it was real.

Reputation does not travel, and that is more useful than it sounds. In a new room, nothing you did elsewhere is doing any work for you, so whatever you build has to come from how you behave now. If the respect comes back, you learn that it was never about the badge.

Walk into the new place without mentioning the old one and let people find out slowly. Do the unglamorous work early: first to arrive, last to complain, the one who learns names. Watch how long it takes, and take that as your answer.