The sister to honesty is transparency. Your employees want to be in the know, especially on the big stuff. When they are not in the know they feel like that kid in high school who was thrown out of the locker room pre-game and who then has to get out on the field not knowing the plays and rules of the game.

Walter basically grabbed the chalk right out of my hand and wrote an "F" on the board, left a space, and then wrote a "C." The eyes of one of my favorite students 16-year-old Daryn Dodson, sitting in the front row, opened wide with amazement.

As a regional executive director and national team player achieving these outcomes never felt like a job -- as cliche as it sounds, but I know you can relate, it was a calling.