Dream big; do constructive delusion
Oddball Leaders are kind of delulu — and that's a good thing.
In a job gone by, I had a boss who was very rigid.
Like really, really, very rigid.
We chased after mediocrity and maintained the status quo like our jobs depended on it — though, in retrospect, these were the very actions that stifled our success.
Saying “no” was like a badge of honor.
We rested in the false sense of comfort that comes with sticking to the “tried and true.”
And, honestly? It sucked. Progress eluded us.
Nah, jk it was worse — regress found us.
IF YOU CAN’T BEND, YOU WILL SNAP
Rigid leaders love their rules and their roadmaps.
And, honestly? Who can blame them?
With so much uncertainly and chaos in the world (not the good kind), clinging to predictability like it’s a weighted blanket is safe. It’s easy. It’s corporate self-preservation.
But leadership that can’t bend eventually snaps — and it leaves a trail of staff departures and a toxic work environment in its wake.
Oddball Leaders, though?
We practice a special flavor of creative sanity I like to call constructive delusion — the disciplined belief that something better is possible, even when everyone else is too busy polishing the status quo.
It’s not fantasy.
It’s not denial.
It’s not naivete.
It’s just enough imaginative audacity to open doors that rigid leadership never even notices.
WHY RIGID LEADERSHIP ISN’T SUSTAINABLE
Rigid leadership is like taxidermy — everything looks lifelike without a sign of life behind it. (And if it’s bad taxidermy, then it’s ugly, too.)
Consider this:
Rigid leadership mistakes control for competence. Leaders tighten the screws because they fear the element of surprise. But what about hard, important work isn’t surprising? Especially in non-profit work; the ability to pivot and shift course is critical. Because where does the rigid leader turn when crisis hits?
Rigid leadership kills psychological safety. If the only acceptable answer is “yes, boss,” they stop thinking. They just comply. It makes a vice out of creative thinking, and innovation flatlines.
Rigid leadership minimizes what’s possible. Rigid leaders don’t build the future — they maintain a carefully curated museum of Whatever Worked Ten Years Ago™️.
CONSTRUCTIVE DELUSION AS THE CURE
Oddball Leaders have the uncanny ability to look past the status quo. They hold on to the faintly burning wick of “maybe.”
Maybe this partnership could work.
Maybe this idea has potential.
Maybe this staff member is capable of more than they’ve been told.
Constructive delusion isn’t about ignoring limits (because, to be real, limits exist!) — it’s about refusing to worship them.
Constructive delusions asks, “What could be true here, if we breathed some life into this idea? If we chased down this possibility? If we didn’t settle for the baseline?”
It’s this mindset that cultivates partnerships because people love leaders who also see potential in them.
It makes space for innovation because some new ideas just need a little suspension of disbelief to get off the ground.
It empowers staff because humans will rise to meet the expectations held for them, and gives them a stake in the process.
And it builds momentum because hope is contagious.
SO WHAT DOES CONSTRUCTIVE DELUSION LOOK LIKE IN PRACTICE?
Constructive delusion marries reality with imagination for new possibilities. Oddball Leaders ask “What is possible?” not as fluff, or as empty promise, but as strategy. They imagine a better state and then reverse-engineer it.
Constructive delusion places a higher value on agility than certainty. Oddball Leaders experiment, they don’t dictate. They’d rather pivot than defend a dead plan.
Constructive delusion invites others in. Oddball Leaders rely heavily on the teams they serve. They want the people around them to co-create solutions instead of receiving handed-down commandments from on high.
Constructive delusion demands faith in others. A natural fit — Oddball Leaders believe in their people just a smidge more than they currently believe in themselves.
Constructive delusion thrives in a growth mindset. Where rigid leaders see risk, Oddball Leaders see opportunity.
Constructive delusion is the courage to imagine something better and the discipline to build it.
I succeeded this boss after they departed for another opportunity, and one of the first things I did was inject a healthy dose of constructive delusion in the work we did. Gave her the ol’ Oddball Leadership treatment.
We took risks.
We asked “What if?”
What if we stopped doing it the old way?
What if there’s a new, better way?
What if we made different, data-centric decisions?
We were bold.
And we thrived. We saw operational growth in ways unseen before and since.
BELIEVE IN THE “MAYBE”
At the end of the day, rigid leadership is just fear that’s dressed up in a blazer and signing your timesheets.
Leading with constructive delusion, though? Now that’s leadership with a pulse.
And knowing what I know now, I wish I could travel back in time to give this advice to my old boss:
If the old rules are suffocating possibility, loosen your grip.
Bend a little.
Dream a little.
Let your imagination outrun your doubt by half a step.
Because the future doesn’t belong to the leaders who cling the tightest — it belongs to the ones willing to believe in “maybe” long enough to make it real.