Leadership and Guide Dogs

I was re-reading an old Ken Blanchard article, and came upon this passage, which made me smile. He is referring to the training of Guide Dogs:

Trainers take two kinds of dogs out of the program - the completely disobedient and the completely obedient. You'd expect the first group to be dismissed, but why the second? Because the only dogs trainer's keep are the ones that will do whatever the master says unless it doesn't make sense. Imagine letting dogs think! And yet, it would be a disaster if a Seeing Eye Dog and his or her master were waiting on the corner and the master said, "Forward." The dog, seeing a car speeding in their direction, shrugs his shoulders and thinks to himself, "This is a real bummer" as he leads his master into the middle of the street. Frontline / customer-contact people are asked to do that all the time - do what they're told, follow policy, even if it doesn't make sense for the particular situation (p. 24).

If your team is full of only completely obedient people, who do only what they're told, then get ready to be run over by a car. Thinking critically, providing feedback, and challenging ideas are all qualities of an effective leadership process.

This passage also reminds me that those we lead sometimes know where to take us, how to get us there, and when to start. Sometimes it's best to trust them, and get out of the way.

Source: Blanchard, K. (1998). Servant-leadership revisited. In L.C. Spears (Ed.), Insights on leadership (pp. 21-28). New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.