Rules, processes and policies are necessarily written to cover most situations. Leaders must lead through all situations, and so will often find it necessary to break the rules, escalate around the process and make exceptions to policy.
When I flew aircraft for a living, as a Naval Flight Officer (not a pilot – think Goose, not Maverick), NATOPS was our constant book of study. A large blue-covered book, the Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (pronounced NAY-tops) manual was about 300 pages of instructions on how to fly our plane safely. Every six months, everyone in our squadron who flew had to take both written and practical tests on our NATOPS. The emergency procedures had to be memorized, and the notes, cautions and warnings understood.
Warnings were those things that, if you did not follow them, would likely result in your death. Because of this, we say that NATOPS is written in blood. Somebody did that thing. They died (or almost died). And the manual is updated with a new warning.
A NATOPS book is basically a three-ring binder. Frequently, big Navy issues an update. We all had to tear out the old page and insert the new one. Having an up-to-date NATOPS manual was a check-point in those semi-annual certifications.
The book was written by smart people, by experienced people and by people who knew the plane well. Therefore we needed to know what the book said.
And because the book was written by people, who are falliable, the book was made to be updated and changed.
Leaders follow the rules the vast majority of the time. Leaders also know that the rules cannot possibly cover every contingency and situation. They know that sometimes rules must be broken, in order to serve the larger purpose of the organization.
If you only follow the rules, then you might as well be a computer algorithm, with no more sense or judgment than a machine. If you do not know the rules, then you are neglecting to learn from others.
Do you know your rules well enough to know when to break them?