Have you ever been betrayed by someone you trusted? Not only do you feel lied to, but you feel personally exploited—they were keeping something from you for an extended period of time! Don’t ever exploit anyone’s trust like this. Understand that, the higher you go, the more consequential your decisions become for everyone around you. While professional blunders can cost you money or momentum, personal decisions can cost you an entire legacy. Choose wisely.

Internal conflict is often ignored; but it’s so easy to sense. What confuses me most is when lead leaders see, and refuse to acknowledge, conflicts within an organization. When we ignore internal conflicts, we’re setting ourselves up to fail. Conflict won’t vanish; it will eventually simmer and boil over into every aspect of operation. We cannot face external challenges until we are internally healthy. What do you need to do today to restore health and peace in your organization?

All we have is our integrity and our character. At the end of the day, those are the only things that can’t be taken from you. However, you can give them away. Integrity is a word that implies the wholeness of your being—the marriage between your walk and your talk. Character is the decisions you make when no one else is watching. When you have integrity and character, you don’t have to remember what you said to whom, because your stories are always the same. They are free; but they are extremely expensive.

Authentic means "this is it." I travel to different parts of the world and try to collect as many souvenirs as I can. Every one of you was born with a fake and authentic radar. I'm a leadership consultant and organizations call me in to do something you can already do yourself: listening to one's radar. Authenticity is a key attribute that leaders should hold. Here is how it applies to you as a leader.