OWN YOUR PATH!

A Diplomatic Disclaimer: This Post Is About Leadership, Not Politics.

As a lifelong soccer fan, I’ve always admired how the best teams operate. Eleven players, one coach, a clear strategy, and a shared goal. Success rarely comes from individual talent alone. It comes from trust, discipline, and respect for roles.

That same principle applies in leadership.

One of the fastest ways to damage a high-performing team is when a leader inserts themselves into decisions that aren’t theirs to make.

Imagine a World Cup match. The referee makes a difficult call. A player receives a red card. Emotions run high. Fans disagree. Coaches are frustrated. Now imagine someone outside the game walking onto the field and demanding that the decision be overturned. You know what I am talking about… 😉

Chaos would follow.

Not because the call was necessarily right or wrong, but because the integrity of the system would be compromised.

And let’s be honest: nobody wants to see a soccer match turn into a board meeting where everyone suddenly thinks they’re the referee.

Leadership Is Not About Controlling Every Decision

Many leaders fall into the trap of believing that their position gives them the right or even the responsibility to intervene in every situation.

The reality is the opposite.

Strong leaders understand where their authority ends.

Despite what some leaders think, “because I said so” is not actually a business strategy. Great leaders create systems, build trust, and empower people to do their jobs. When leaders override processes simply because they can, they send a dangerous message:

“The rules apply until I disagree with them.”

And once a team starts believing that, trust begins to erode.

The Cost of Undermining the Experts

In soccer, referees are not perfect.

Neither are project managers, engineers, team leaders, doctors, or financial analysts. And trust me, as a project manager, I’ve yet to meet one who wakes up in the morning thinking, “How can I make everyone’s life more complicated today?”

Organizations function because we trust qualified people to make decisions within their area of expertise. When leaders publicly challenge or reverse those decisions without understanding the full context, they don’t just influence a single outcome, they undermine the confidence, trust, and accountability that teams need to perform at their best.

They weaken confidence in the entire system.

Teams begin asking:

• Why should I make decisions if they’ll be overruled?
• Why am I accountable if someone else can change the rules?
• Why should I take ownership when leadership doesn’t trust me?

Soon, initiative disappears.

And once initiative disappears, performance follows.

What remains is a team that spends more time looking over its shoulder than looking toward the goal.

Winning Teams Respect Their Roles

The best World Cup teams succeed because everyone understands their role. Players play, coaches set the strategy, and officials enforce the rules. The same is true in business.

Leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room, it’s about creating an environment where talented people can succeed. That requires humility, trust, and sometimes resisting the urge to jump in and solve every problem yourself. (Yes, fellow leaders, that also means not answering every email within thirty seconds.)

A Leadership Lesson Worth Remembering

One of the hardest lessons I learned as a leader was that being responsible for a team’s success doesn’t mean controlling every outcome. In fact, the more I tried to control everything, the weaker my team became.

Real leadership isn’t about proving you have power, it’s about knowing when not to use it. Teams grow stronger when leaders trust the process, respect expertise, and allow others to take ownership.

Just like in soccer, the goal isn’t for one person to win the game; it’s to build a team capable of winning together. And before stepping in, every leader should ask: Am I helping the team, or am I becoming the distraction?

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P.S. Now that both Colombia and the USA are out, I’ve moved on to Plan B: I’m a big Haaland fan and I’m Supporting Norway and acting like it was my plan from the beginning. ⚽🏆