Leadership Vs. Followership

When asked, “What is a leader” Willie Nelson once said, “find a bunch of people walking in the same direction, walk real fast and get out in front of them.” While that is a humorous and even ridiculous definition of leadership, it is accurate, in its limited way.

American and American organizations might even think it disrespectful to a culture that nearly worships leaders, to talk about the need to be a good follower. Most of us were raised to respect and even be a leader.
Yet, most of the work in this country is not done by leaders. Less than 25% of the work in America is done by leaders. The rest? Well, “the rest” is done by that group that gets no respect, followers. American corporations spend millions of dollars each year on finding leader and then teaching them to be leaders when those they thought they found were not.
Few of us were ever taught to be good followers. Yet even the greatest of leaders were followers at one time and most, if not all, must be followers in their current leadership role. So, why do we devote so little attention to following? Could anything get done without a leader? I am not certain but that is what ‘self-directed teams” is all about. Could we all be better, better leaders, better followers, more satisfied and fulfilled if we were better followers?
I believe so. By being better followers we would be more efficient at getting 80 percent of the work that is done, done in a more efficient way. Than can’t be bad. And, if we learned to be better followers the leaders that emerged would be better and more efficient about the 25% of the work they do.
I think there are just a few important truths about followership that we should consider:

1. Not everyone can be a leader all of the time. If you are not the leader you can be one of two other things: a follower or a drag. If you were not the leader, for which one would you like to be remembered?

2. Followers are essential and leaders could not exist without followers, be humble.

3. Good followers don’t always become good leaders but good leaders were, at some point, good followers.

4. Good followers have two important traits: They can see the big picture and they like to see other people benefit from their work.

5. Good followers are good at giving feedback in a way that others, who need to hear, hear.

In all, there are just five essentials that, if remembered and implemented, would make you a better follower. If you want to be a part of a real high-performing team, as a leader or a follower, practice these five essentials and share them with others.

A Race Is On and You Are In It

If you work for a living, whether you like it or not, you are in a race and the competition is no push-over. To give you some idea about the scope of this race, China just became the world’s second largest economy; the number of people among India’s most intelligent is a greater number than the entire population of the United States and over one-half of the revenue of America’s Fortune 500 came from outside the U.S. the last two years. This is a wake-up call!

There is little we can do or even want to do about the globalization of the world’s economy but there is something we can do about how that globalization effects us. U.S. companies, that consider themselves international, fared well during 2009. All but 4 percent of the top companies earned profits. In fact they have created 1.4 million jobs, overseas. Those same 1.4 million jobs, had they remained in the U.S. would have lowered the unemployment rate to 8.9 percent instead of the 9.8 percent with which we currently struggle.
Don’t blame the companies for shipping jobs overseas because of cheap labor. Those companies are growing because of growing demand from countries like Brazil and China. The rapidly expanding middle classes of those countries are driving demand upward at an accelerating pace. The reason for that growing demand?
Growing productivity of the middle classes of those countries is driven by improved education and economic conditions. DuPont, which set the world on fire in the late 1930s with its invention or nylon and today, is still recognized as the world’s most innovative companies sells on one-third of its products in the U.S.
What’s good for American companies is not always good for Americans. DuPont’s workforce in the U.S., during the period 2005-2009, decreased by 9 percent, while increasing by 54 percent in Asia and Pacific countries. That is just the tip of the iceberg and economists worry that the growing trends will place further pressure on the American economy. American has fallen behind in the preparation of its young people to compete in today’s world.
What is our strategy? As best I can tell there is no strategy. Most of us and especially our politicians are to busy focusing on the short term to do anything that will have a lasting effect on the future.
Here is a three point strategy that is the beginning of the beginning and not certainly the total solution.

1.Appoint a non-partisan commission to study and recommend broad steps needed to prepare the next generation to compete in a global world. And maybe most importantly, be willing to take the recommended steps, even at personal costs.

2.Elect politicians that “see the light” and understand that the “ostrich head in the sand” approach to will not work. That legislation needs to be generated today to deal with the quality of U.S. education. This may mean but not be limited to the elimination of teaching unions.

3.Be prepared to make sacrifices to improve the future. An early priority might be to wean ourselves from the addiction we have to oil. Certainly sending billions of dollars, everyday, to people who don’t like us much is less than an effective.

In the final analysis, doing the same things over and over is not the solution. Let’s be innovative and proactive and call for all around us to do the same.