How to be a Good Follower?

How to be a Good Follower?

“What do Leaders Have That You Don’t?”

“How to be a Successful Leader?”

“7 Habits of Highly Successful Leaders”

“Identifying Leaders”

“How to Think Like a Leader?”

These, and more of these kind of articles are falling all over themselves, not only on LinkedIn but also on other Social Networking (Personal and Professional) sites. There’s a glut of these so called motivational articles urging the readers to identify and bring out the leader in you.

More often that not, you read these seemingly popular and life changing articles word to word, get inspired and try to inculcate those habits in your day to day routine.

And then, you totally forget about it…until the next “How to be a Leader” article comes along.

So what is it with us and our obsession with churning out leaders? If everyone goes on to become a leader, who will be the followers? Who are the leaders going to lead? Themselves?

Are You A Follower?
And I am not talking about Twitter Followers here.

If you are reading this, ask yourself – Are you a Follower or are you a Leader?
An easy question to ask, but difficult to answer. Why? Time and time again, our minds have been conditioned to think of “non-leaders” with a negative connotation. Many of us will squirm, feel uncomfortable even, when your actions suggest that you are not a leader, but a follower. It is almost taboo to say that you don’t like to lead.

If you’ve ever been to a job interview, there is bound to be these inevitable questions: “Do you think you have leadership skills?”or “Can you work independently and take initiative, without waiting for instructions from your supervisor?”, even if you are applying for a secretarial position!

Try saying “No, I am not a leader but I’m an excellent follower!” Do you dare? Probably not. I bet your answer will be “Of course, I always believe in being pro-active and take full responsibility for my actions…” or something similar. Ah well, if you can really do that, you shouldn’t be applying for an Assistant Secretary in the first place!

So why do we need “Good Followers”?

Before someone gets their knickers in a twist, let me explain the term “Followers”.

Followers are Doers, Followers are executers.

Without Followers, there will be no Leaders. Yes we need Leaders, but we also need Good Followers. These are 2 different profiles, 2 different roles. Neither one is better or worse than the other, although in Societal terms and common definition, a leader is, sort of, on a higher pedestal than the followers. For an obvious reason that there are usually lesser number of leaders than followers.

Behind every successful man, there’s a woman. Similarly, behind every successful Leader, there are some good, strong, solid and passionate Followers.

This holds true for most roles whether it is Politics, Private or Public Industry, Business or even your home.

A Good Follower is NOT a Yes-Man

Being a Good Follower does not mean that you need to be a Yes-Man or to follow the instructions blindly like a robot.

You are a Good Follower if you have most of these characteristics:

a) Courage – To take a stand for the good of the company and keep your supervisor informed about what’s happening on the ground.

b) Intelligence – To understand the implications of your and your colleagues (and your supervisors’ actions)

c) Desire – To perform to the best of your ability

d) Passion – To give the job your BEST shot

e) Sincerity – To ensure that your actions are above the board, always

f) Followership Skills – The most important characteristic.

Stop feeling guilty if you like taking orders and executing them beautifully. That is YOUR JOB and YOU need to do it PERFECTLY! You need to have “Followership” skills. If you have Followership skills, you will love your job, you will live out the 5-10 years you work in the company at the same position you started off (or maybe with 1 or 2 promotions with higher salary) very happily, comfortably and guilt-free. You will not feel embarrassed or depressed that you don't want any promotions, or that you don’t want to lead a bloody team! You are content to take orders from your boss and give your best!
This holds true whether you are a Secretary, A Sales person, A Politician, A Teacher, A Student, An Actor, A Driver, An Agent, A Wife, A Husband, A Son, A Daughter, A Technician, An Engineer, A Doctor or Anything else! This is true for Each and Everyone of us.

So, ask yourself today: “Am I a Follower or Am I a Leader?” Answer the question honestly, figure out yourself and stop trying to be someone you are not and stop making others and yourself miserable and be happy! :)