Five Characteristics Of A Great Follower
Leadership is overrated. It is the followers that get it done. Or is it?
I’m not against leadership. I’m against how it is perceived. Every organization needs leaders who remind everyone what kind of hay they are making and why. That’s it. I don’t believe a leader’s role is that of a caring parent. And, I don’t believe the role of a follower is to cede their responsibility in the organization to someone else.
Too many times in today’s world we find leaders who think they are responsible for their employees well being. Their role is to exercise authority by organizing, inducing, coercing, and/or motivating those lower on the ladder. We also find too many employees all too happy to play the child in the parent/child relationship. This provides cover for poor performance and allows them to forever bitch about how poor leadership is responsible for their lot in life. Enough.
Successful organizations in the future will be a community of people wrapped around a common purpose – a purpose that calls to the higher aspirations of people. It’s time we as individuals stopped abdicating to others, find a shared purpose that’s in accordance with our principles, and learn how to be a great follower. Here are five characteristics of a great follower:
They visualize all the relationships of all the people in pursuit of the shared purpose. They understand the organization from philosophy thru practice.
They scrutinize themselves. They take care of their own integrity, ethics, character, knowledge, words, and actions. It starts with them.
They do their best for those who have authority over them. They provide them continual insights and find ways to gain their consent and support, which allows them to better follow the conviction everyone shares.
They seek support from their peers. Without authority, they encourage and find ways to gain the respect and confidence of others of equal stature.
They assist those of lesser authority, giving them moral support. There is never a time when their knowledge, judgment, and wisdom are not available.
In essence leaders cannot cause organizations to achieve greatness. They can only set the table for the followers to join the purpose and create a movement in which everyone involved is passionately committed. When you look closely at the characteristics of a great follower you can question who is leading and who is following. When an organization is clearly committed to a shared purpose there may be people of authority, but leading and following are happening simultaneously by all. It is leadership by everyone.
Take a look at the below YouTube video. It demonstrates in less than three minutes how leaders and followers become one around a shared purpose. In the end you cannot identify who is leading and who is following.
Reader Submitted by:
Willie Davis
www.wordpresswriter.com
Willie is also the author of Choices: Making Changes In Your Business, which shows business owners the way to introduce change in their organization to lead to success.
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You raise a very good point with this article and I believe you’re bang on with what you are saying. I can further verify what you say is true by relating my own very real experience as a mentor/leader myself.
I have lead many who have now come full circle by teaching me a thing or to that I didn’t know. So, followers do indeed become leaders at some point as you say and one can experience total pride in ones work when it all comes down!
I like to say those who think they know it all, definitely have surprises coming down the road. As you say, you have to be able to follow to lead.
Thanks for the article and very sobering reminder!
Maurice