Following Well simply has to be an Essential Leadership Discipline. I read more than the average person and naturally run across very little about "following". By little I mean almost never. In the last year, and I keep up with stuff like this, I've only ran across about following in LinkedIn (one article) and the Bible. Nothing else, yet without followers, without following, without following done well we can't have good leadership.
The first time I remember reading anything of substance, written by man, about following was in a discussion on LinkedIn http://tiny.cc/gMgQM. This discussion, in May of this year, led me to the article mentioned in the discussion, that led me to the book http://tiny.cc/2YWMV .
Now, I've researched and found some other things written about following and Ira Chaleff (Courageous Follower), has written and lectured extensively about the subject, but good grief...you have to go looking for it. No doubt I have an ax to grind, but what is up with leadership leaders not talking about and writing about it? Seriously, are we that hung up on leading that we're scared to talk about following?
Having said all that, maybe this is just another blind spot I've got. But one thing I do know, following well is not something that comes easy and everyday I hear or read about being a good leader, or developing leadership, or some such very important leadership discipline. Yet no one wants to talk about following and how in the world can you have one without the other.
Ponder the thought of how well people follow you. Think about how important it is to follow well. In fact, I encourage you to stop thinking about leading and leadership and starting paying attention to your followership. You'll be surprised with the results and Randy Pennington makes a great case the Results Rule!
To that end....please learn to follow well.
This is an revision/update of a post originally posted on my Inside-The-Box-Success blog.
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