“It’s in your moments of decisions that your destiny is shaped.”
TONY ROBBINHS
U.K. research in organizational behavior says that a workplace burdened with too many rules leads to:
- Reduced autonomy and initiative
- Lower productivity
- Higher frustration
- Subpar well-being and
- Deviant behavior.
On our team at NIU, we have one rule we live by:
Don’t do anything that is detrimental to yourself or to the program.
When I share this simple directive at the beginning of each season, I’m often met with confused, startled, and even whimsical expressions.
It’s like our athletes are expecting The Ten Commandments or an exhaustive list of “Thou shalt nots.” Yet, Da Vinci said: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
The latitude to lead is about your ability as a change-agent to use your own judgment, and it’s a staple of our coaching approach.
7 Drivers Behind The Latitude to Lead Principle
#1: I want to maintain discretion and visibility in murky waters.
#2: We don’t want to be a team of “I gotchas.”
#3: We want to create a collaborative, ownership mindset.
#4: I’m not interested in being a manager or a dictator–I want to lead.
#5: We want the flexibility to show how much we care.
#6: We want to be fair at all times as practitioners of situational leadership.
#7: We want to develop empowered, independent thinkers.
In a world of constant change, it’s vital that we as leaders build dynamic cultures of fluidity and grace. Too many rules bog people down and stifle the kind of creativity necessary to perform at the highest level.
René Vidal