To Become Great Leader, You Must First Become A Great Follower.

“If everyone is leading, who the hell is following?” 

Many people commonly ask this question with a confused look on their faces because, in their mind, they are of the view that if you are a leader, you lead and if you are a follower, you follow; that's it. But nothing can be further from the truth, and it’s vital that leaders, especially emerging leaders understand that to be a great leader, you must first be a great follower. 

Being A Good Follower Does Not End When One Find Their Leadership Abilities

In an article from The University of North Carolina's Executive Development blog they shared a keynote speech in 2012 from former HP executive vice president Vyomesh Joshi. Vyomesh indicated that the key to being a great leader was to practice good follower-ship. In other words, leaders who have been good followers and who practice sound follower-ship principles are leaders who understand how to work with people to bring out the best in them.

Leadership Lies In The Collective “We,” Not The Individual “I.”  

This old-fashioned type of thinking about the leader with all the answers, dominating over everyone and everything has to change. As Warren Bennis states, leaders are only ever as effective as their ability to engage followers. Without follower-ship, leadership is nothing. In Stephen Reicher and Michael Platow book, The New Psychology of Leadership, they outline that the key to success in leadership lies in the collective “we,” not the individual “I.”  

Everyone Leads And Everyone Follow

In other words according to Kim Peters and Alex Haslam, in their article Research: To be a Good Leaders, Start With Being A Good Follower; leadership is a process that emerges from a relationship between leaders and followers who are bound together by their understanding that they are members of the same social group. People will be more effective leaders when their behaviors indicate that they are one of us, because they share our values, concerns, and experiences, and are doing it for us, by looking to advance the interests of the group rather than own personal interests.

Everyone Leads From Their Area Of Gifting

We all lead at some point, and we all follow as well. We leverage our strength in our area of expertise to the benefit of our people, our organization and our customers but we must never forget that leadership is about people and utilizing the strengths of our people to get the work done. In this case, as the leader, you will follow the lead of your team at some point.

When we ask the question according to Tim Elmore, If everyone is leading, then who’s following, it is like asking folks at a shopping mall: If everyone is selling, then who is buying? The answer is simple. Everyone is selling, and everyone is buying. The people who sell sandwiches are selling to the clothing store employees during lunchtime, and vice versa—the clothing store employees are selling to the restaurant employees when they need to buy a new outfit. We are all leading and influencing in certain areas. 

No company can ever have too many employees with excellent leadership qualities; everyone has the potential to lead because everyone leads from their domain of expertise. You don’t need a title, gone are the days when leadership was associated with fancy titles or designations only. Nowadays, leadership isn’t about your title; it’s about one life influencing another for the greater good of the individuals they are entrusted to serve.

To become a great leader, you must first become a great follower. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Gifford is the author of The Inspirational Leader, Inspire Your Team To Believe In The Impossible, the founder of Leadership First, a member of Harvard Business Review Advisory Council and a leadership consultant with GLG.

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