Follow The Leader - Lead The Follower!

by Mike Manes

'The first role of the leader is to define reality.' - Max DePree, businessman
'The one absolute for leadership is followers.' - Peter Drucker, management expert

'The role of the leader is to get people from where they are to where they have not been.' - Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State

Followers define the leader as much as the leader must shape the followers. Leaders can envision the future; followers often can't. Leaders can and will leap forward; followers often take baby steps. There are stages in the life of followers: They have to walk before can they run; they must mature.

Yesterday's leaders were patriarchs, who told followers what to do. Followers were dependent; their work was repetition; their tool was the assembly line.

Today, leaders empower employees to think. Thinking is the work, and information is their tool. Infrastructure provides parameters for the actions and development of thinking employees. Independence and personal growth must be encouraged.

Tomorrow, leaders will have to allow followers to dream, innovate, and act. Success will depend on taking risks, falling short, and trying again. Infrastructure will be too rigid and limiting; the only parameters can be the organizational vision and values.

The ultimate goal is interdependence: teaming with the allies needed to achieve the vision within the value structure. Creating and networking will then be the work; communications, knowledge, and innovation will be the tools.

Followers must go through the dependence and independence phases to interdependence to grow; they can't mature by skipping a phase. The leader and the followers have to function at the same phase until it's time to move to the next level - then the leader leads!

In some organizations, leadership isn't in sync with the followers; other organizations have multiple leaders who aren't all at the same phase. Success requires them all to be in this together, whether it's in a certain phase or positioning to move to the next one.

If the leader is too far ahead of the organization, they're a scout, not a success. This 'bleeding edge' position is great for developing the organization's vision, but it won't facilitate implementation, efficient operation, effective results, and the 'customer delight' we all want and need today. The leader needs to get in step with the organization, guide it to maturity, and lead the way to the next stage and ultimately the future.

If the leader lags behind the organization, they're not in charge. Dragging the organization backward to meet the leader would be equivalent to denying its future, including changes in marketplace and competition. It may be possible to fast-forward the leader to maturity, but it's not probable.

Patriarchs are particularly difficult to change; by nature they aren't flexible. A patriarch is a patriarch because they enjoy it! They like being in charge. There's little possibility they'll abandon control and instead embrace vision and values as their leadership tools. They trust themselves and aren't going to invest their future in an infrastructure or the people they control. As they see it, it's 'my way or the highway,' although actually their time - and style - have passed.

The One-Paragraph Leader: What's the vision? The values? At what stage are the organization and its leader(s)? Can the leadership and organization be aligned to honor the values and achieve the vision? Is there the willingness to act, to change, to try, to fail, and to succeed?

Follow the leader - lead the followers!