Leading and Following: Why the Best Leaders Follow to Lead

“My dad always taught me to be a leader, not a follower.?Many years later, I learned you can, in fact, be both!”

This quote is the sixth message I shared in my book 140 Simple Messages to Guide Emerging Leaders. ?A recent discussion with senior leaders in a leading organization made me reflect on these words from my father.?I know my dad had good intentions when he taught me this philosophy.?However, this advice made being a follower something to be disdained.?It made it something to avoid.?In reality, I later learned that all leaders, including my dear dad, follow someone or something.?

My dad may not have admitted it or realized it when he kept saying he was only a leader, but he actively followed his minister, lessons my grandparents taught him, and civic luminaries.?

All leaders learn leadership from somewhere.?Everyone learns first by observation.?Young children learn to lead early on not by reading books but rather by watching their parents and others in their social environment long before they can even speak or read.?It is later cemented by what they read, where they study in school, and who is formally setting the example for them.?

I studied the work of Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey while at the Harvard Kennedy School.?Their Cognitive Development Theory is a masterpiece of thought leadership used by educators around the world.?Their theory has five levels.?I will only highlight three for this discussion about how we first follow and then lead.

·?????Level Three—Traditional (Socialized):?At this level, people develop cognitively and as leaders by adopting and accepting the traditional view of what a leader is.?They comport themselves by what is socially acceptable.?That, of course, changes over the years.?For example, during the 90s and early 2000s, many major institutions of higher learning and many respected journals taught that leadership looked like Jack Welch, the widely admired CEO of GE, where I worked for nine years.?Today, however, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone suggesting that leaders should lead like Jack Welch.?Jack Welch and the leaders who copied him because it was the socially accepted standard of the day are no longer seen as examples of leadership to follow. That leadership legacy proved unsustainable.

·?????Level Four—Modern (Self-Authorizing): Level four explains how people develop cognitively and lead as leaders by authorizing themselves to develop their own standards for leading.?They may choose to look at different models of leadership and become an amalgam of many different leadership styles as one new style all their own or perhaps leverage different leadership styles as circumstances call for while primarily leading from one dominant leadership style.?In his landmark article on emotional intelligence in the Harvard Business Review, Daniel Goleman likens it to using various golf clubs in your golf bag.?Leaders such as Satya Nadella, Greta Thunberg, Tim Cook, William J. Barber II, Fatma Samoura, Jo Ann Jenkins, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Arianna Huffington are just a few of the examples that come to mind when thinking of examples of 21st-century leadership worth examining.?

·?????Level Five—Post-Modern (Self-Transforming): Finally, level five addresses how people develop cognitively and lead as leaders by creating new standards for leading that transform the very look of leadership.?They provide new frameworks for leaders everywhere to follow.?New frameworks for leading and new images of what leadership looks like are part of the great work I’m doing at Linkage. In our quest to “Change the Face of Leadership,” led by our Chief Research Officer Emeritus, Mark Hannun, and a team of brilliant researchers, consultants, and staff, we created a transformative leadership framework that is used around the globe that helps leaders become “Purposeful Leaders” who are also “Inclusive Leaders” and who represent the new look of leadership.

We will all navigate back and forth between all levels of the development theory at different points in our life as we develop as people, as adults, and certainly as leaders. I find the Cognitive Development Theory to be very useful and refer to it often.?It is an excellent way to explain the process and the fact that once a leader is at a certain level, it does not mean they stay at that level.

Yes, being a follower can be a good thing.?It is the essence of humility for a leader to recognize they are, in fact, a follower first and a leader second. ?This is what prepares them for leadership and allows them to lead effectively.?May we "follow to lead" so we find the leadership framework we can use and examples of leadership to model ourselves after equipping us to lead others in an effective, inspiring, and fulfilling manner.

June 2022 Keynote

I was honored to be a keynote speaker for the?Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation! My keynote entitled: "Reflecting on Allyship: How to Drive Meaningful Change" was the first official keynote I delivered on behalf of Linkage.

I'm grateful they had me at their?IICF Southeast Inclusion in Insurance Regional Forum: Advancing Ideas Into Action?event!

Shout out to?Sarah Conway,?Katie Beth Ongena, and their amazing team for putting together a truly memorable event!

Book of the Month Recommendation

The Agitators

My book of the month recommendation for July is The Agitators. According to Goodreads, it is a book that "chronicles the revolutionary activities of Harriet Tubman, Frances Seward, and Martha Wright: three unlikely collaborators in the quest for abolition and women’s rights." In so doing, "The Agitators brings a vivid new perspective to the epic American stories of abolition, the Underground Railroad, women’s rights activism, and the Civil War."?

??Get your copy on?Amazon!

Photo Credit: Goodreads.com

Podcast of the Month Recommendation

My good friends Jeannie Walters and Adam Toporek are customer experience experts who host the "Crack the Customer Code" podcast. It is the #1 rated customer experience podcast.?Visit https://www.crackthecustomercode.com/?to listen to one of their almost 500 episodes!

I recommend this podcast because of its quality and the amazing guests.?I also had the honor of being a guest on this incredible podcast.?This is one of the first podcasts I ever appeared on. Click?here?to listen to my episode (#144). Listen and subscribe by visiting Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Keep Leading!? Podcast (On Pause but Powerful)

I’ve paused the production of the Keep Leading!? podcast, but love looking back at the powerful words of the incredible leaders I interviewed.?Check out this look back at one of my most memorable episodes with Phil M. Jones. Phil is best known for his international best-selling book, Exactly What to Say – The Magic Words for Influence and Impact. He also provides behind-the-scenes strategies for some of the world’s biggest brands to understand their critical conversations and the success language required to maximize their effectiveness.

?? 60 Second Preview ?? available by clicking?here!

Visit?the Keep Leading!? podcast website for?the entire episode?or wherever you listen to podcasts!

About Eddie Turner

Top 10 Ranked Motivational Speaker in the World—Global Gurus?|?Preeminent Authority on Emerging Leaders—Forbes?|?Certified Executive Coach?|?International Best-Selling Author?|?Master Facilitator?|?Former C-Suite Radio Host of the Keep Leading!? Podcast?|?Member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches?|?ICF Coach of the Week |?Top 25 Thought Leader—Thinkers360?|?Top 30 Biggest Voice in Leadership to Watch for 2022 —leadersHum?|?Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education Alum: Public Leadership?|?Top Global Mentor for 2022 - IFLD