A powerful message.

Just be yourselves. Go play. It was one of just two games standing between the Chiefs and the Super Bowl. Losing would end their three-peat dreams. But with all that on the line, Reid’s message was simple: Be yourself. Do what you’ve always done. And maybe have some fun along the way.

There was a reason the reported asked that question. The last moments before a game is when coaches deliver a final pep talk, or admonishment, to their team. Many of them believe those last few words as players take the field can make all the difference.

Reid used those words to show his complete faith in the men he coaches, some for more than a decade. Reid is justly famous for coming up with clever plays that catch opposing teams off guard. But he’s just as good at harnessing the power of letting people be themselves. It’s a hugely effective strategy, as Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes once explained. Instead of forcing players into a particular system of play, Reid allows them to make the most of their own strengths. This means they can play their best without worrying about seeming weird. It also lets them take the effort they’d have spent trying to live up to an idea of what a football player should do, and channel that energy into winning games instead.

What if you tried it yourself?

Think about the most successful, most productive, most effective people you know. I’m betting at least some of them seem just a little offbeat. There may be a reason for that. Because they don’t spend time and effort trying to conform to other people’s ideas of what they should do or how they should come across, they have that much more time and energy for what really matters.

What would happen if you could unleash that same power in the people who work for you, and in yourself as well? What if, before a major launch, or another do-or-die moment, you told your key employees to just be themselves, and go play? How much could they accomplish if you did?