If you follow better, you lead better
Leading and following are a duality—you cannot have one without the other. But people get fixated on leading as somehow superior to following. That’s nonsense. If you want to be a better leader, you also have to be a better follower.
When you think of leading, do you think of it being better, somehow, than following?
I remember once working with a CEO who idolized leadership and pounded her fist on the table to say she wanted more leaders at the company. One of her team members pointed out that if there are leaders, then there must also be followers. “No,” she said, “I want a company with only leaders not followers!”
There are a lot of cultural scripts that reinforce the ideology that leading is somehow superior to following. Think of all the books that sell you something about leadership. How many are there out there selling you on followership? Most organizations reward senior managers by putting them on a “Senior Leadership Team”. There is no “Senior Followership Team” that we’ve encountered. Leading is so idolized culturally, especially in the West, that it’s as if we must evolve from following to leading if we’re to become successful.
This hierarchy is nonsense. Leading and following are not stages of evolution or rungs in a hierarchy, but an entwined duality in each of us, where both benefit from the other. The experience of following incorporates qualities such as curiosity, humility, wonder, desire, learning, appreciation, and above all, attention. Followership is about drawing from those qualities to explore what’s possible, to find the path you want to lead people along—and how to lead them effectively. A leader who doesn’t follow is blind to what’s going on around them.
I live near some incredible hiking trails. If I bring you hiking with me, I lead the way by following the trail. If I go too fast, you will fall behind and I will no longer be leading, I’ll just be a guy walking alone on a trail. So I will follow your pace. There are many choices along the trail, with different levels of difficulty. If I consult with you about the best route for the two of us, I’ll follow the conversation and my instincts. If I follow well, chances are I will lead us on a great hike.
Following is paying attention. Draw from your experience: If you pay attention to what your team is going through, will you lead them better? If you follow the data, will you find something valuable? If you delegate important work to someone, will you get a better outcome if you follow their lead, then follow up with them?
In what other ways can you imagine improved followership would improve your leadership?
There’s something I haven’t addressed here, which is when to lead and when to follow. Following blindly—or even faithfully—is a recipe for disaster. I’ll cover that next week in a second part to this newsletter.
To embracing the follower in you,
Tom
www.tjaleadership.com