I regularly take authority and you’re right about how people can feel, but that’s where your social skills come to play.

Your average person doesn’t even take authority.

The next “level” per se (not that you have to take authority — only if you want to) is the person taking authority.

Then the next level above that is the person that takes authority but understands how it looks to other people, so they sure everyone else understands that they are taking authority to make things move along, not because they are entitled to it. They attack the problem head on.

My goal is to get good engineering done while also making sure everyone feels included and good about being at work.

If you’re about good engineering and respect for other people, you can get things done however you want.