Core value · Freedom family
Autonomy
Directing your own work and life
Also covers Choice
What does autonomy mean as a core value?
Autonomy as a core value means making your own choices about how you work and live, within whatever goals and limits apply, and being trusted to do so.
Being told how to do something you already know how to do is one of the fastest ways to lose you. You’re happy to be given a goal, a deadline and even tight limits, but you want the choices within them to be yours. Autonomy as a core value is about authorship: your work, your schedule, your way of running your life. Micromanagement lands as a statement that you aren’t trusted, however helpful it’s meant to be.
What does autonomy look like in practice?
- You ask for the outcome and the deadline, then politely decline the step-by-step instructions.
- You negotiate over how and when you work before you negotiate over pay.
- You make the big life choices yourself, even after asking plenty of people for advice.
- You give your team ownership of their approach because you know how much it matters.
- You quietly disengage when a manager starts checking every detail.
When is autonomy overplayed?
Wanting the call to be yours can make you hard to lead and hard to work alongside. You may resist reasonable check-ins, go quiet on progress so nobody can interfere, or make decisions alone that others would have wanted a say in. Partners and colleagues can feel shut out. The healthy version keeps ownership while staying accountable and open to input. A useful check, when input arrives, is whether it actually takes away your choice or only feels that way.
Often confused with
Autonomy vs Freedom
Freedom is about having few constraints. Autonomy is about being the one who makes the choices, and it can thrive inside plenty of constraints.
Autonomy vs Independence
Independence is not relying on others. Autonomy is happy to lean on other people’s help, as long as you’re the one deciding how.
Autonomy vs Control
Control reaches out to keep a firm hand on outcomes, and sometimes on other people. Autonomy is about authority over your own domain.
Questions to sit with
- Which decisions do you insist on owning that would be better made with someone else?
- What would a manager or partner need to do to earn more of your trust in how you work?
- How much autonomy do you give the people who rely on you, compared with how much you want?
More values in Freedom
Independence, choice and room to be yourself.
About the author
Matt Rutherford is a Career and Leadership Coach. The Values Finder is the same exercise he uses with his coaching clients. He also writes Stuff that MattRs, a weekly newsletter with practical ideas to help you think clearer and work better.
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