I Told You So

I have heard it said.  The best followers make the best leaders.  I heard that ages ago and see the rightness of it.
My job entailed providing my boss with any information he sought.  It was not to embellish things to provide what he wanted to hear.  It was simply to provide information outlining the way things were.  Based on that information decisions could be made.  The information I provided was often information that resulted from past decisions.  My role was not to decide if I agreed or not and make a decision for myself from there.
As is often the case I have been thinking of the army.  The last thing a leader needs is for someone to decide they are right and the leader wrong and to throw plans into disarray by doing their own thing.
The implications of such an act, as far as I can see, are far reaching.  A leader needs to know they can trust others to do their bidding.  They must be willing to hear (in movies I hear “permission to speak freely sir”) but they must be willing to act.
History is littered with both the implications of bad decisions and of good decisions.  I often think that if a subordinate thought they knew better and failed to act on instructions, many of the key battle wins, based on out of the box plans, would have not happened and probable defeat would have resulted.
The thing for me is the leader may be right or wrong.  But just as likely the subordinate may be right or wrong.  The key for me is the leader can confidently implement and learn best, if their plans are followed through.
Mistakes are invariably messy and valid learning can occur in all sorts of ways - when I am is willing to learn from my mistakes.  I learn powerful lessons from my mistakes.
The key for me is to trust and obey.  Outcomes may vary to what I would like, but me defying what I have been told to do, is like breaking a shell for an emerging bird.  It does more damage than good.
Where I am willing to learn, an “I told you so” moment from another, can be an “I told you so” moment for me too – as long as I am the one with the authority and have acted on my decision.