Why Every Leader Should Lead At Following
Followership is one of the most challenging tasks leaders must tackle. In fact, not every leader can or will follow, but the leader who will lead well knows how and when to do so. For example, a leader will seek to model followership to all team members as they prepare their organization to function without them. Every high-performing organization should be better when the leader operates in the business, but the business should also be able to perform when the leader is not present — whether temporarily or permanently.
Unfortunately, many leaders never learn how to lead at following. When leaders don't follow or learn the art of followership, they will miss out on experiencing their team and themselves in a new and better way.
What Leaders Miss When They Won't Follow
1. The leader who won’t follow will miss out on influence impact.
Many leaders are only interested in themselves. They only think about how to improve themselves, and they never consider how to improve their teams. Leaders who won't follow the lead of others miss out on the potential impact they can have in their current situation. The decisions a leader makes today could impact both today and tomorrow when they invest in others who will lead into the tomorrows.
However, many leaders are not willing to do what is necessary to humble themselves and let others take control of their positions and responsibilities. When a leader is so committed to a title, an accomplishment or an achievement that they cannot let it go, they miss out on the opportunities to exert influence and make an impact in the lives of others.
2. The leader who won’t follow will miss out on personal impact.
A leader who only leads is a leader who believes too much in their own excellence. Many leaders rationalize that they are doing all that is required of them when they only lead themselves. This kind of leader believes that they don’t have room for improvement in any area. Many leaders could accomplish more if they became aware of their need for personal growth and development for themselves and others.
When leaders reject the concept of followership, they sentence themselves to stay stuck at their current level of personal development. It is only in serving others that leaders can understand more about themselves.
3. The leader who won’t follow will miss out on exponential impact.
When a leader-follower follows, they have the potential to accomplish more than they could have ever achieved on their own. When a leader has followers who are willing to give everything to them, they can do what seems impossible from a human perspective. The power of others has significant potential to accomplish much.
How To Practice Followership As A Leader
Followership inspires the leader to step back so others can step forward. There are several ways that leaders can model followership for their teams.
One way a leader can practice followership is by humbling themselves and asking people on the team to teach them their jobs. When a leader submits to learn what the team can teach them, the entire team becomes better. Leaders who wish to lead well will seek out the wisdom of their teams to understand how everyone in the organization can perform better.
A second way to model followership is to make decisions in the company available for a vote by the entire organization. When the leader shows the ability to let others be a part of making decisions, it teaches the whole team the importance of each person in moving the company forward and increases support for those decisions, since they've been made as a team.
Finally, a leader can model followership by submitting their agenda and schedule to the needs of the team. A leader could start the day by asking the team what they need from them that day. Then the leader can organize their day around the needs of the team. When a leader promotes their people first above their schedule, their people then make their commitment to their leader their top priority.
An old proverb states that "Those who are first will be last, and those who are last will be first.” The leader who learns to lead at following will develop a last-first mentality, not a first-last thinking one like most of the world practices. Every leader should want to lead at following because that means that they have developed other leaders to lead with them. No great leader has ever been described as a leader who won’t follow. Rather, it should be the desire of every great leader to be a follower first as they model for their teams what great followership and great leadership embody.