The office thought they had struck gold. Billing had been a persistent pain point, so when a coder applied claiming nearly twenty years of experience, strong confidence, and fluency in all the right terminology, it felt like the solution they had been waiting for. The interview went smoothly. The résumé looked solid. The explanations sounded convincing.

Years ago, while managing a team of about 15 people in Phoenix, one of my employees, Carol, said something that stuck with me. She told me my office was messy. Not in a rude way. Not critically. Just honestly. She said it didn’t match how professional I was—or how professional I should be—and that it felt beneath me. She wasn’t attacking my work. She was pointing out a disconnect between how I showed up as a leader and the environment I allowed around me. She was right.