Follow the Leader – Lead the Follower!

The first role of the leader is to define reality. (DePree)

The one absolute for leadership is followers. (Drucker)

The role of the leader is to get people from where they are to where they have not been. (Kissinger)

Followers define the leader as much as the leader must shape the "following". Leaders can see the future – followers often can’t. Leaders can and will "leap"; followers often take baby steps. There are stages in the "life" of followers. They must "walk before they run"; they must mature.

Yesterday’s leaders were patriarchs. They told followers what to do! Focus was on the boss. Followers were dependent – repetition was work – the assembly line was the tool.

Today, leaders empower employees to think. Infrastructure is established to provide parameters for the actions and development of thinking employees. Independence and "people" growth must be encouraged. Thinking is the work and information is the tool.

Tomorrow leaders must allow followers to dream, innovate and act. Success is dependent upon taking risks, falling short and trying again. Infrastructure is too rigid / limiting – the only parameters can be the organizational Vision and Values.

Interdependence – teaming with the "allies" needed to achieve the Vision within the Value structure – is the goal. Creating and networking are the work; communications, knowledge, and innovation are the tools.

Followers must mature and grow through the phases of dependence and independence to interdependence. They can’t skip a generation and be "mature". The leader and the followers must function in the same stage until its time to move to the next level – then the leader leads!

Some organizations have leadership not in sync with the followers; others have multiple leaders not in the same stage with each other. For success – all must be in this "together" – in the same stage or positioning for the next move.

If the leader is too far ahead of the organization, (s)he is a "scout / pioneer", not a success. This "bleeding edge" position is great for vision and the future, but will not facilitate implementation, efficient operation, effective results, and the "customer delight" all want / need TODAY.

The leader must step back into the organization, "microwave" its maturity then introduce / lead this group into the next stage and ultimately the future!

If the leader is less advanced than his organization, he is not in charge – "the inmates are running the institution". Bringing the organization "back" to meet the leader is tantamount to ending its future. This would be equivalent to denying the future, marketplace, competition, change, etc.

It may be possible to "microwave" the maturity of the leader, but this is not probable. Patriarchs are particularly difficult to change – by nature they are not flexible. A patriarch is a patriarch because HE enjoys it! He likes being in charge.

There is very little possibility that he will abandon control and instead embrace Vision and Values as his "tool" for leadership. He trusts himself and is not going to invest his future in an infrastructure or the people he now controls. It’s his way or the highway. The reality is that his time (and style) has passed.

Leadership in a paragraph – What’s the Vision / Values? Where are the organization and its leader(s) in the aforementioned stages? Is there the ability to align the leadership and organization for honoring the Values and achieving the Vision? Is there the willingness to act, to change, to try, to fail, and to succeed?