Rant against compliance

Our education system is organized around compliance. Admissions, study classes, examinations are about schooling the students to follow some directives.

Many company cultures are also organized around compliance. From hiring to appraisals to training programs – all follow a certain set of known ways of doing things.

The reasoning for this appears to be that at some point, compliance transforms into measurability and measurability gives the control you always wished for.

But have you ever looked at this from this point of view that the cost of compliance is a lost opportunity for personal leadership?

Personal leadership is without a doubt one of the building blocks of phenomenal careers. In fact, it is an absolute must if making a difference is on our cards.

I wonder why compliance is considered a way to reach the mountaintop.  Compliant programmers rarely become great CEOs, do they?