A story of leadership from soccer ⚽

Playing the way the coach wants “gives us confidence because we don’t feel any pressure and if we make a mistake it’s his fault, which is the license that he gives us, which is refreshing.”

That’s English Premier League soccer player James Maddison, talking about his new manager, Ange Postecoglou, after a match against their North London rival, Arsenal.

Before the start of this season, he transferred to my favorite team in the EPL: Tottenham Hotspur. Tottenham is considered one of the top six clubs in England but finished a disappointing 8th out of 20 last season.

That was enough to get their old coach fired and bring in Postecoglou. Seven matches into this season, despite losing one of the top goal-scorers in the league, Tottenham are surprisingly sitting in second place and haven’t lost yet.

That has all of the pundits trying to figure out why and that was the question put to James Maddison following the match against Arsenal. Early in the match, with Tottenham trailing by a goal, Maddison had a turnover deep in his team’s end of the pitch that almost led to a second goal for the opposition.

Maddison was asked if that made him think twice about attempting to control the ball so deep in his end. He said it didn’t because that was how the coach wanted him to play and that mistakes wouldn’t be held against the players for following his plan.

Imagine if business leaders operated this way. If they really gave their people the freedom to fail. If they took responsibility for shortcomings in their plan.

What would that do to their teams?

Maybe James Maddison provides a glimpse. Having fully recovered from his early mistake, he went on to record assists on both of Tottenham’s goals as they came from behind twice to earn a draw at Arsenal.

Given the freedom to fail by his coach, Maddison felt free to perform at his very best. Give your team freedom to fail and you just might be surprised by what they can accomplish.