Leadership and Integrity Skills, and Giving Credit Where It's Due

Have you ever searched for an idea on Google, found an image, video clip, or activity you could use, and simply… used it? No citation, no credit, no second thought? I’ve been there. I’ve done it. And I’ve learned—sometimes the hard way—just how important it is to acknowledge the work of others.

I’ve played video clips from YouTube or my own Netflix account in class, thinking it was okay because it was “educational.” I’ve copied textbook pages, dropped internet images into PowerPoints, and used classroom activities I found online—all without checking usage rights or giving proper credit. And at the time, I didn’t think twice about it.

But then I started creating my own curriculum for Peers Not Fears. I began to deeply understand what it means to be a creator—what it feels like to pour time and energy into something original, only to see it used without acknowledgment. That’s when it hit me: what I was doing was plagiarism. Not intentionally malicious, but still harmful. And once you know better, continuing the behavior isn’t just a mistake—it’s a choice that reflects your integrity.

A Wake-Up Call

A huge part of my learning came thanks to my friend and colleague, Katie Gadwah, a school librarian who opened my eyes to the laws around copyright, usage rights, and intellectual property. She helped me see how easily we slip into habits that, while common in education, don’t align with what we teach our students about originality and honesty.

Recently, I was listening to the podcast Don’t Write That Book, and they talked about Mel Robbins and The Let Them Theory. I loved that book. But in the episode, the hosts brought up how the phrase “let them” may have been inspired by a poem written by Cassie Phillips. The problem? Cassie wasn’t credited. At all.

Mel Robbins is a major voice in personal development. Whether intentional or not, when she doesn’t give credit to someone whose words inspired her message, it sends a powerful message: that it’s okay to use others’ ideas without acknowledgment. And that’s not leadership. Leadership is recognizing your influence and understanding that your actions ripple outward.

Would it have cost Mel Robbins anything to say, “This poem may have influenced me or my daughter when she shared that phrase with me”? Probably not. But not saying it? That might have cost Cassie Phillips the recognition she deserved.

How This Shows Up With Teens

This all got me thinking about our work with teens. How often do we expect students to value originality when we, as educators, blur those lines ourselves? How can we be surprised when students copy and paste a paper from the internet if we’re modeling the same behavior with resources and activities?

We need to stop framing intellectual property as a legal issue only. It’s an integrity issue. A leadership issue.

When I lead leadership programming with students, I emphasize that being a leader means recognizing how your actions impact others—even when those others aren’t in the room to call you out. That means doing the right thing when no one is watching. It means giving credit, lifting others up, and knowing that your platform can be used to build, not take.

Leadership is a Skill—So is Integrity

Both leadership and integrity are skills. They take practice. And we’re not perfect—we all make mistakes. But once we’ve learned, we have a responsibility to do better.

As a creator now myself, I feel the weight and the worth of being acknowledged. Every time someone credits me, shares my work, or mentions my name, it builds momentum. That’s the power of visibility and integrity. And that’s the kind of leadership I want to model—for teens, for educators, and for myself.

Because in the end, it costs nothing to give credit where it’s due. But it can cost someone else everything if we don’t.

💡 Want to Help Your Students Understand This?

If you’re an educator looking to bring this conversation into your classroom, I’ve created an activity that connects the dots for students between “just Googling something” and the real impact of copyright and plagiarism. It’s designed to make students think critically about their digital choices and understand why giving credit matters.

👉 Check out the activity on my Teachers Pay Teachers store here.

Let’s teach our students that leadership means doing the right thing—even online—and that every choice we make says something about the kind of leader we are becoming.