Follow my Leader - Leadership
Follow My Leader - Leadership Words of Wisdom
Follow My Leader - Leadership Development
by Liz McKechnieI was talking to a CEO recently who said "Not everyone can be a leader... we need some people to simply follow".
At a talk I was giving on leadership I was asked a question by a young woman, "How do you become a good follower?"
This gave me pause for thought. It seems to me that the role of leadership is a choice we make.
In our leadership programmes I often ask people where they are leaders in their own lives. In my life, I choose to take a leadership role at Impact factory in the work I do. I like the respect, the challenge, and the responsibility that goes with it. When I am at home I have the lives of my two teenage children within my power. I choose to follow... and paradoxically, in so doing I lead.
The thing is I don't want to cramp their style, to impose my will or my patterns of behaviour. I want more than anything, that my daughters should be free to grow spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally in their own way.
If we are all born, as Wordsworth says, "trailing clouds of glory", then I want them to live up to their potential. What this means is that I choose to follow their lead. I work hard at enabling them to be the best that they can be. I have a strong desire to keep them safe but if they never fall they will never learn and they need to experience setbacks to learn from them in their own way. So I try to allow them to be and it is far harder than taking the lead and telling them what to do. I watch with bated breath and hope that all will be well. So far the clouds of glory remain intact. And that is, after all, what I want.
In "The Tao of Leadership" adapted from Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" there is a paragraph that says:
"The wise leader is of service: receptive, yielding, following. The group member's vibration dominates and leads, while the leader follows. But soon it is the member's consciousness which is transformed, the member's vibration which is resolved... Both get what they need if the leader has the wisdom to serve and follow."
My thoughts:
So when are we leading or following in our lives? If we have made an active choice then we are leading because we can choose to dominate or choose to empower. If we have no choice or are not aware of what we are doing then we are simply reactive and being led by our unquestioned patterns and beliefs or by the fickle opinion of others.
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