I don't think the "Send" button had even popped back up before my direct manager summoned me. I received the most legendary tongue-lashing of my life. It was a "resetting" I’ll never forget. From that day on, my emails addressed the GM by his first name (as he requested) and my direct manager with the utmost formal respect. I learned to give to Caesar what was Caesar’s.

Integrity is not a quiet virtue. It is loud. It is tested. It is uncomfortable. And sometimes, it puts you in rooms you never imagined you’d be in. Yet, when the dust settles, and you look back on the choices you made, you find that the only true defence you ever needed was the truth — and the courage to stand by it.

Every employee — whether difficult, gifted, misunderstood, or quietly exceptional — leaves an imprint on the leader they encounter. And in the end, it is these imprints — often painful, often unexpected — that stay with us long after the project is delivered.