What does it mean that authority requires responsibility?

With the authority to direct your own thinking comes the responsibility for the quality and consequences of that thinking.

Example: You leave a meeting convinced the strategy is wrong but say nothing because 'it's not my call.' Six months later, the strategy fails exactly the way you predicted. You feel vindicated — but you shouldn't. You had authority over your own thinking and chose not to exercise it. The strategy's failure is partly the team's. Your silence is entirely yours. You owned the insight and refused the responsibility that came with it.

Try this: Identify one belief you hold that currently guides a significant decision in your life — a career direction, a relationship pattern, a financial strategy. Write down: (1) what evidence supports this belief, (2) when you last updated this evidence, (3) what would change your mind. If you can't answer all three, you've been exercising authority without responsibility. Update the belief or own the gap.