“If you’re leading a room, you need to be aware that your effectiveness with your audience has much in common with how an actor is viewed. If that actor forgets his lines or freezes onstage, or even if he just stumbles, the audience will recognize that he’s a performer going through the motions and some of the magic will be lost. They might get distracted. They might even sneak a peek at their phones. If you “break character,” it sends a message to the audience that what you are delivering is not authentic. And if you’re not an actor onstage, but someone whose authority might be questioned or complicated-if you’re giving a sales pitch or conducting a press briefing, say-they’ll feel you’re just pretending, and they’ll think you’re trying to trick them.”