WARNING! What you say (and do, and post, and tweet) can, and will, be used against you!

No one is safe from the consequences of their own actions - no one should be...

Rarely does a day go by without a news story popping up, detailing someone partaking in some stunningly sordid or illicit activity - the college admissions scandal featuring a handful of celebrities being one of the most recent.

In many cases, these allegations fly in the face of the public persona of the person in question, and the shocked family and friends erupt in a chorus of: "How could this be?"; "There has to be a mistake!"; or "He/she was so nice / normal / kind / friendly / honest / faithful / (insert positive adjective here)."

In fact, as it turns out in many cases, there was no mistake and he/she actually wasn't as nice / normal / kind / friendly / honest / faithful / (insert positive adjective here) as he/she may have seemed. Not always, but in many cases...

Presenting different sides of oneself to play to one's current audience is something that people have almost certainly been doing since our species has been on this planet. For centuries, people have lived double-lives and have gotten away with it because they were able to maintain the necessary division that would keep their two worlds from colliding.

Those days are long gone - we live in an age of unprecedented transparency. In fact, we are accelerating down that path with internet lives and blockchain transactions that not only capture what we do, but create permanent records of our activities.

Let me pause for a minute to assure you that I am not one of those crazed "big brother is always watching" folks who doesn't own a credit card and lives off the grid (though, I must admit, a cabin on a few hundred acres in an out-of-the-way place in Montana would be nice). This is, after all, a blog post that I will publish to my website and promote on social media. I own a smart phone. I shop on the internet. I have several active email accounts. I use apps that require access to my location. I don't, however, have a personal facebook account, but that is a topic for another time... The point here is that I am aware my online activity is not private, and I am also aware that much of what I consider to be "offline" activity will somehow find its way online.

Concurrent with this realization, it would be a shame for us all not to be more deliberate in our actions and the perceptions associated with them. This can be admittedly hard to do in a world that seems to be more focused on "right now" than simply "right," but all our actions now live forever and help to shape the view that our kids and grandkids will have of us, long after we are able to defend ourselves.

With the advent of social media and its widespread adoption among people of all backgrounds and demographics, individuals now have a voice capable of spanning the globe within seconds. Think about that... It is an extremely powerful tool that, when harnessed appropriately, can do a tremendous amount of good. However, in the immortal words of Spiderman's very own Uncle Ben, "with great power comes great responsibility." Enough said.

Actions we take that are inconsistent with what others expect of us are, at minimum, a distraction from our current path and stand in the way of achieving successes. In the extreme, they can cost people their livelihoods, their good names, and their freedom.

In the summer of 2018, I had the honor of representing my Duke-Fuqua MBA cohort as class commencement speaker, during which I spoke on this very topic. Fuqua puts a lot of stock in their alumni being "Leaders of Consequence," the definition of which was eloquently captured by Caroline Stone in her aptly titled blog, What is a Leader of Consequence. She writes: "For me, being a Leader of Consequence means being a leader who cares not only about the impact I have in my workplace, but the impact I leave on the rest of the world – whether that be by transforming the way business is done, or enhancing the way a company interacts with its community."

In my address, I asserted that we become leaders of consequence by:

1. Being true to ourselves;

2. Conducting ourselves with honor and integrity;

3. Being steadfast in our moral character;

4. Being compassionate towards others;

5. Being contemplative and purposeful in our actions;

6. Always challenging our own assumptions and what we believe to be truths;

7. Never being satisfied with the status-quo; and

8. Not allowing people or circumstance to ever define who we are.

No one is safe from the consequences of their own actions - no one should be... Your reputation will both precede and follow you. Your effectiveness as a leader will ebb and flow with your reputation. Act, post, and tweet accordingly.