I am the second child out of three and growing up I had the opportunity to follow and to lead. I learned first how to follow. My older sister enjoyed directing me to do things and to follow her. Then I enjoyed directing my little brother. Yes, there was conflict at times, but now that I have grown up I can see the benefits of knowing how to lead and follow.
To lead you first have to know how to follow. As a leader knowing what the people who are following you are feeling is key. Whatever group of people you are leading need a reason to believe you are a good leader and that you are worth following. As a follower, I look for a leader that treats me like they care. I don’t want to be treated like a child or like I am not intelligent.
Just because someone is following doesn’t mean they aren’t their own person and treating them like they are individuals is very important. Now, as a leader, I ask people what they want to see from my leadership so that I am not just directing them to do what I want. In a group working as team, is the most important quality because you accomplish more as a team.
After becoming a leader, I now follow very differently because I understand what it feels like to lead a group. When you are a leader you stand up and say, “I am in charge” and not in a demanding way, but in a responsible way. Your group members come to you for advice, for help, and for direction. It is a lot of pressure sometimes, but other times it is really rewarding. I also changed how I interact with my leaders because I now know how hard they work and I try to make their jobs easier. When I follow I do it because I agree with the leadership and their mission, or because I am working a job. When I lead I do it because I am the most passionate or the one who stood up to lead. The motivations are different as leader and follower, but once you become a leader you always think like one. So now, even when I am a follower, I think like the leader in order to assist them in our tasks.
Everyone should be a leader of something because experiencing leadership is rewarding and helps you grow as a person. Once you lead you not only help whoever you are leading, but also you learn how to be a stronger follower. Leadership can be scary and seem like you have to much responsibility, but really you are just the person who guides a group forward. If every follower were also a leader think about how awesome our teams, workplaces, and organizations would be! So followers go be leaders and leaders follow like a leader.
