In leadership, predictability, reliability and uniqueness play an important role. It is very hard as an individual to be able to balance these three concepts because by focusing on one idea you lose sight of the other. Take these three examples:
One: Do you want your professor to be reliable?
Yes (I hope you answered yes). But why?
As a student or even as the follower, it is nice to know what is going on in a project, in class or at work. When your professor or boss gives you an outline or syllabus, you read what is expected not only from you but what you expect from them. If they say an essay is due within two weeks about the history of flowers, they expect you to have the essay ready by then, just like you expect them to be present and receive your essay and have it graded by the time they said it would be published in your academic portal. This example concludes that being reliable builds trust in some cases.
Two: If you are part of a sports team, isn't it good to have predictability?
Yes (I really hope you answered yes). But why?
Take soccer, for example. When your team practices kicks and cool ways to trick the opponent's defense team, the team as a whole becomes predictable. Everyone in the team knows who kicks, who receives, and who will be able to score the perfect goal if everyone follows the plan. What if on the day of the game, one player takes the whole team by surprise, and decides to not pass the ball to his teammates, but instead decides to run straight to the goalie and shoot? What happens then? I believe the whole team may be disappointed if he misses the goal, and boom, they lost the game. The point of this example is as a leader, it is important to be predictable, to stick to your routine or to have a routine, because in some circumstances it can allow you to accomplish more things on your to-do list.
Three: It is important to not lose sight of who you are.
Right? Right.
In some cases, people lose sight of what they love doing. For example, if you love playing your guitar, and you play it everyday because it is fun, you are showing uniqueness because there may not be someone as passionate in playing the guitar as you. But what if everyday you play the guitar, but play the same song over and over again? Wouldn't it get boring? If it does get boring, it is because you and your guitar have become predictable in playing that same song again that now it isn't fun anymore. Or you have become too reliable on that one song that you do not challenge yourself with groovier tones as before because you are now comfortable.
The point in all of these examples is not about being predictable all the time, or to be more unique in your music then reliable in your homework, the point is that sometimes it is a good thing to have structure (predictability and reliability) because that gives you a chance to be unique.
The last thing you want is to be a robot.
