Learn from experience.
Why Great Leaders
Were Once Great Followers
Leaders. Those who lead from the front. Make big
decisions.
Steering the ship. Inspiring others. Huge responsibility.
Many of us aspire to be leaders in our chosen calling.
So we develop role models. Those we look up to. And try
to emulate their leadership traits - decisiveness, boldness, and when necessary
- single mindedness.
In today's world leadership is even considered a position
of authority.
The buck stops with the leader.
Leadership is almost considered a personal trait - you
either have it or you don't.
Yet in ten years as a hiring specialist, I've noticed
something quite ironic.
Leaders are rarely born.
In fact, most leaders spend most of their lives as
effective "followers"
before stepping up to leadership.
They develop most of their expertise whilst following others.
In many cases, some of the highest performing leaders
once never aspired to leadership
- even may be tried to avoid it.
In his world famous book "Think and Grow
Rich" the best selling author Napoleon Hill
analysed over 25,000 of the most successful people of all
time.
He found that in most cases, the best followers made the
most successful leaders.
Even today - many of the top leadership icons in all
industries - President Obama, Marc Benioff
and Christine Lagarde were loyal followers for many years
before stepping up to outright leadership. Following others well is the fastest route to leadership.
Here are some reasons why great followers make great
leaders.
The better you follow, the more you learn
One of the most important assets of being a great follower
is that it allows you to learn more
- and learn more quickly. Those who follow better gain
more knowledge from others leaders.
The greatest achievers never try to re-invent the wheel.
They realise the world is full of people with the skills
and knowledge they are looking for.
Rather than learn everything from scratch, or rely purely
on self-study,
they understand the fastest way to learn is to emulate
the best. And then build on it.
The faster you learn, the faster you will accelerate to
positions of leadership.
This is why some of the greatest leaders of all time have
insisted early on their careers
to find the best mentor possible.
Warren Buffet for example, once famously knocked on the
offices of
the economist Benjamin Graham literally harassing him
to give him an opportunity to work under him.
For hardly any money. He spent nearly a decade under his
tutorship
before deciding to go out and set up his first investment
business.
Leadership requires knowledge.
And knowledge is often only developed through following
others effectively.
Followers often earn the opportunity to lead
Another benefit of being an effective follower is that it
allows leaders of the future
to develop their mettle. To earn their spurs. To get that
big break.
Often, in an attempt to accelerate to leadership
overnight, becoming an effective follower
is overlooked. People move jobs just to gain promotion.
They set up their own businesses so they can be "the
boss". They emphasize education, qualifications or finances over one important
thing. Experience.
Although sometimes necessary, moving to leadership
without experience as a follower
can often be counterproductive.
It's often said that the harder you work for something,
the more you value it.
That is very true of followers who earn the right to
become leaders.
Through years of hard work and being loyal to others,
they finally get the reward for their graft. Often this means they treat the
opportunity to lead with more privilege and value.
It can even mean gaining more respect from others
who
have seen them work their way to the top. Great followers earn the right to lead.
Followers develop empathy
But perhaps the most important asset of being a good
follower in leadership
is the fact that it brings important perspective.
Once-upon-a-time followers
know what it is like to be led. What they expect from a
leader.
How to be an effective team player.
Being a good follower brings empathy.
A quality essential in leadership, and found recently to
be lacking in most organisations
across the world, including many of the largest
businesses.
You see the paradox of it all is that great leaders
understand
that there is no line between being a leader and a
follower.
To be effective, you need to be both. Just
like great religious and philosophical leaders
practiced what they preached, the same is true of leaders
in all callings.
Great leaders never emphasize the authority of their
leadership.
In fact, they spend most of their team serving their
teams,
relying on their advice and following them when
necessary.
And only making tough decisions when they have to.
Seeing the world from the perspective of your followers
is critical in leadership.
Conclusion
All of us want to be successful.
And in many cases this involves becoming great leaders
- for our businesses, our societies, even our families.
Yet in an attempt to be strong leaders we should never
overlook
that following others well is just as essential to
success.
Hiring managers should ensure they analyse leaders of the
future in detail
- to ensure that they have also demonstrated following
others well.
Have you been a great follower?
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Be A Great Leader. Increase Your Hiring Power
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-great-leaders-were-once-followers-jas-singh
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