But here’s where it gets complicated.
The research on leadership says something different. Studies show that leaders who admit mistakes are more effective than those who try to appear flawless. Teams with psychologically safe environments, where people feel comfortable bringing hard conversations to the table, generate more ideas, take more risks, and perform better.
So, which is it? Silence or openness?
Both. But…the direction matters.
There’s a difference between being receptive and being a broadcaster.
Receptive transparency means you’re open to criticism. You create space for hard conversations. When someone brings you a problem, you listen. You don’t get defensive. You might even thank them for the honesty. That’s leadership. That’s how you build trust.
Broadcast transparency is different. That’s you narrating your own doubts, struggles, and uncertainties to the world, in real-time, before you’ve resolved them. That’s the team leader telling his guys he’s not sure about the plan while they’re loading the helos. The CEO posting about their imposter syndrome while the company is on fire.
One builds psychological safety. The other erodes confidence.
The best leaders I’ve seen do both, only in opposite directions. They receive openly. They broadcast strategically. They’ll hear anything you bring them. But they don’t narrate their own mess until they’ve cleaned it up.
Here’s where the top 5% separate themselves.
Most people, when they screw up, feel compelled to confess immediately. To get ahead of the story. To perform accountability in real-time.
The rare ones do something different. They stay quiet. They fix the problem. And then, and only then, they come clean.
They’re not hiding. They simply understand something fundamental: actions speak louder than words. A confession without resolution is just noise. But a confession that comes with “here’s what happened, here’s what I did about it, and here’s the result”…now that’s accountability with teeth.
The order matters. Fix it first. Explain it second. Let your actions do the heavy lifting before your words try to.
None of this means “be fake.” It doesn’t mean “never be vulnerable.” It means stop confusing disclosure with integrity.
Authenticity isn’t about how much you share. It’s about aligning who you are with what you do. You can be deeply authentic and still exercise discretion about when and how you reveal your struggles.
Strategic silence isn’t deception. It’s discipline. It’s the refusal to surrender power by narrating your uncertainty before you’ve resolved it.
And in a culture that treats oversharing as virtuous, that discipline is rare. Which is exactly what makes it even more powerful today.
Listen openly. Broadcast strategically. Receive hard truths freely. Share your own mess only after you’ve cleaned it up.
That’s not inauthenticity. That’s maturity. That’s the 5%.
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Tegan Broadwater spent 13 years with the Fort Worth Police Department, including two years assigned to the FBI working deep undercover inside a violent Crip organization. That operation, detailed in his book Life in the Fishbowl, resulted in 51 convictions. He has since founded Tactical Systems Network, an armed security & protection firm primarily staffed by veterans, is a creative writer and musician, and hosts The Tegan Broadwater Podcast. All book profits benefit children of incarcerated parents. Learn more at TeganBroadwater.com
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