Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may have violated federal records laws by using a personal email account for all of her work messages, the New York Times reported on Monday.

By using a private email account Clinton violated three main concerns of the US government. Use of a private email account skirted security issues and opened up possible leaks of information. It also created a situation where there was a lack of transparency. When you use a personal account instead of the federally mandated account it can look like something was being covered up. Also, you lose the ability to have historical records of transactions preserved over time.

There are systems and beliefs in place for a reason and when as a leader of an organization you purposefully violate the systems, the standards, and the beliefs then you are, by example, telling everyone that works for you that they can do the same thing.