Here's how you can address a boss who takes credit for your work in a servant leadership position.

One of the things that I have found helpful in reflecting is to conduct a risk assessment of some kind. How significant is the relevant item to your career or contribution to the organisation and weigh it up with benefit of taking the issue with the boss. In this way you determine how high the stakes are. This helps you to plan your stance in your discussion with the boss. Most importantly you are able to consider options available to you. Confronting the boss being just one of them. You could also decide to let it go but take lessons from it. An example of a lesson would be to operate differently by sharing your input with another colleague in the team when you forward it. Keep learning and adapting.

I think part of the reflection also should be focused not only on whether it was intentional or not but also the WHY? Maybe it's intentional because lack of communication skills then the conversation might change to finding your areas to improve. That doesn't excuse that you should had a feedback instead of rapid action that can be misunderstood. Reflect also on your day-to-day relation with your manager. Because even though this behavior is not excuseable but it usually surfaces another problem. It's more a symptom hiding the real issue.

This is a rather tricky scenario, considering the power dynamics at play. If you are planning to discuss this with your boss, you might want to give them some context about the chat and clarify that you intend to have a constructive discussion. During the discussion, find out what made your boss choose to take credit for something you've done and understand their perspective. Whether this is intentional or not, it helps to understand where they are coming from. When you've heard from them, express your point of view. Use I focused statements such as "I felt..." Get their thoughts on sharing the credit going forward. Not just with you, but others in the team as well, as it can have an impact on others' morale over time.

When having a difficult conversation it is important to plan what you want to say and how you are going to say it. You are less likely to get flustered or upset and will be much more difficult to gaslight if you are prepared. Prepare yourself with thought-provoking questions to ask your boss that can help them to see their own behavior more clearly. Just because you aren't in the leader position of this relationship doesn't mean you should abandon your servant leadership principles or coaching toolbox for this conversation.

Even though you completed the task and deserve credit for your work, your boss was in the leadership role for the team that completed the work and deserves some credit too. Did your boss reassign some of your tasks to someone allowing you to focus on the important project? Did your boss snag extra resources or some overtime to aid you? Did your boss offer you training and support in ways that enabled you to complete the work even if it was prior to the work being done? Come to the conversation with an understanding of what things your boss deserves take credit for and a plan for giving credit to all parties where credit is due.