Have you ever been disappointed by an employee? Don’t have employees? How about a friend or spouse — have they disappointed you?

Has an employee, or a helper, said they’d do something for you but then just not done it the right way?

Yup, that’s totally frustrating, but in spite of your expectations, you should still be giving people the freedom to accomplish a task their way.

My personal and professional experience is that if you give people freedom, they will surprise, delight, and amaze you. They will also sometimes disappoint you, but if we were perfect we wouldn’t be human. This isn’t an indictment of freedom. It’s just one of the trade-offs. – Work Rules

The ability — or freedom — to fail always accompanies a high level of personal freedom. Failure is going to happen, and failure should not be a reason for denying freedom. When an employee fails while attempting to surprise, delight and amaze you, your reaction should not be to suddenly take away their autonomy.

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In fact, removing freedom is more likely to backfire. Those employees will resent you if you treat them like children.

Give people slightly more trust, freedom, and authority than you are comfortable giving them. If you’re not nervous, you haven’t given them enough. – Work Rules

When it comes time to give people freedom, go a bit further than you think you should. The only way you’re going to get those amazing results you dream of is to give people the freedom to create them.

photo credit: kwl cc