Undisciplined people are dangerous followers

Growing beyond obedience and compliance doesn’t mean eliminating them. It actually means strengthening them.

Authority and rules exist everywhere. Seen and unseen. Natural and man made. We need and rely on both in a healthy society.

The captain is the authority on an aircraft. Rules for driving are vital to our safety on the road. Leaders are the authority for making final decisions. Rules exist in sports to make the competition interesting, fair, and fun.

The problem is: undisciplined people can’t handle obedience or compliance.

The first, and more obvious, reason is they fight against both. Not on the basis of high character and good judgment, but on the basis of mood, ego, and emotional impulse. You can’t count on undisciplined people.

The second, and less obvious, reason is they blindly follow both. An undisciplined person depends on authority and rules to function. Without someone telling them what to do and the rules to follow, they freeze up, lost and confused.

An undisciplined person will obey an unethical command. They follow fake authority. They follow rules that cause damage or worse. They act according to rules that don’t exist because they haven’t built the strength of discipline to think for themselves.

Disciplined people are different.

They don’t stop listening to authority or following rules. They listen. They just have more clarity and show better judgment. They understand when obedience and compliance are appropriate, and when they’re not.

Discipline helps you understand when to get in line with authority and follow rules, and when to go your own way or stand your ground. It strengthens your self-awareness and trains you to exercise good judgment.

You learn to spot fake authority. You recognize when to separate from authority or rules that no longer aim in the direction you want to go.

Weak discipline results in the worst forms of obedience and compliance. The kinds that cause problems of resistance or following without thinking.

Instead, strengthen your discipline. It will not only elevate you as a leader. It will transform you as a follower.

Event + Response = Outcome. Do the work.