“Leadership Begins with “Follow-ship”

Have you ever considered that the success of any leader may be based on how good of a follower one has been?

I believe that both biblically and practically that the essence of a successful leader depends on how successful they have learned to follow leadership.

Follow-ship is the term I use to describe how we are developed as we follow leadership. It is in this mode that we are exposed to the good, bad, and ugly of leadership. This is the mode in which we are most impressionable and most of our formation as leaders begin.

Who we follow is critical. We can learn from every and anyone that is in leadership. The truth is we should have a diverse small group of people we follow (I suggest three).

If they are lame leaders we learn from them. If they are limping leaders, we learn from them. If they are leaping leaders we learn from them. We learn and often take on the character traits of those with whom we are influenced by and follow. We mimic them in various ways and on certain levels their mindsets and behaviors becomes part of our leadership style. In follow-ship we need to ultimately identify positive behaviors that we will keep and not so positive behaviors and mindsets that we will intentionally discard, just like we do with mimicking parenthood.

How we follow is as critically important as who we follow. Are you a good follower; alert, attentive, flexible, and teachable? A good follower must always be teachable! Also important is a good follower must be alert and attentive in order to make the distinction of good leadership practices or bad ones. Some leaders have great book knowledge but absolutely no people skills. If that leader is placed in a position of authority and influence in most cases you will find that they know the job but have no idea how to rally the team for the task! During the mode of “follow-ship” the follower needs to identify this deficiency and try to make suggestions for improvement but most of all, must determine that this type of leadership cannot become part of their leadership style and strategy.

Every leader should always have someone they are following! The learning and development of every great leaders is a life long journey and not a final destination! As long as you are teachable you can continue to become, not just a good leader, but a great leader!