Case Study - Types of Followers

There are different types of followers, but all leaders have followers.

Marketers are looking for followers, sellers..looking for followers.

The sooner one realizes this impact on one's life, one's business,

the sooner one starts moving down the right path.

To be a good leader, a good salesperson, a good marketer, you have to have followers and as we develop our own personal leadership, we will have better followers. It "magically" just happens. What makes a good follower? Can someone develop there "followership?"

Continue to Follow Well, Staying Naked

At a training class a few months ago I was asked "have you read Getting Naked." Ha! While others in the room were a bit shocked at the title, being the Patrick Lencionni follower that I am, I knew it was the title of his new book. My answer was no, but I've been keeping up with Lencionni on web and carry around a white paper he's written on the subject.

I have since read the book and it is a great read for many reasons; it's filed under my "about following" category. Those that know me know that I believe we need to be excellent followers in order to EVER get close to being a good, much less, great leader.

Getting Naked was an easy book for me to digest because it fits my style of work. I'll regularly start doing work for someone before we ever get into a financial engagement; normally that works out well.

A current client recently stopped the use of my services because he did not feel he had gotten the full benefit of the money he had paid me; the market is a bit different than what he'd thought and much of the work was research, the research itself he thought would bring about some different results. I was notified of this in an email response to my request to get with him to discuss the status of the project. Besides stating he had not gotten the results he had expected, he did let me know half way through the month in which he had already paid for services and I did appreciate that.

Hopefully, he is happy with my response, which included a quick note of understanding, plus the fact that I would continue to complete the work we'd agree on (though I don't believe he expected me to) plus I would forward results of that work to him as long as it continued to come in.

That's being a good follower, that's staying naked.

To that end.....


Right People,
  Right Place



Essential Leadership Discipline: Following Well

Following Well simply has to be an Essential Leadership Discipline. I read more than the average person and almost never run across anything about "following" (except following on Facebook, Twitter, etc). In the last year, and I keep up with stuff like this, I've only come across writings about following on LinkedIn (one article), a website on assessments and the Bible. Nothing else, yet without followers, without following, without following done well we can't have good leadership.

The LinkedIn article was the first time I remember reading anything of substance, besides the Bible, about following. The LinkedIn article is at http://tiny.cc/gMgQM and led me to the book Courageous Follower.

I've since researched and found some other articles on  following written by the Courageous Follwer author Ira Chaleff. Mr. Chaleff has written and lectured extensively about the subject.

Having said all that, maybe this is just another blind spot I've got. Maybe there is more written about the subject that I know about, but one thing I do know, following well is not something that comes easy. Everyday I hear or read about being a good leader, or developing leadership, or some such very important discipline. Yet....following, where's the discussion about this discipline? Without it being written and discussed, it will not be considered important. Are we scared to call ourselves and other followers?

Ponder the thought of how well people follow you, or you follow others. Ponder how important it is to follow well.

To that end, ponder following.


(You can find more on "following" by typing "follow" in the search for this blog)

Some Thoughts on Following

I began the week with a focus on following; reading and learning about the subject, how it's done well, not so well, the-good-the-bad-the-ugly, and just literally what it is.

The week is ending with pondering all the same, but from more of a perspective of how well I followed. And was followed.

The box needs improvement on both. While some would say I've followed well, I say it has been quite blind and not near courageous enough.

To that end...

Courageous Follower: Taking Action

A leader leading leader is not the only one leading. A leader leading leader attracts people that follow and lead well and empowers both to take action.

Courageous Follower: pg 35 - "leaders want their staff to assume more responsibility, initiate ideas, and take action of their own."

Some positive examples this week of a leader leading leader; Curtis staying after me for a meeting (it took 2 tries to get me in the meeting) about settings on a new piece of software that we're trying to implement, Jamie going beyond her normal responsibilities to get a problem fixed, and Austen developing a new market awareness program.

This is type of work that energizes a leader and leaves him refreshed at the end of a hard day instead of worn down.

We must all learn to do the job we're hired to do and accept that the job is not all laid out on a policy or a checklist. We have to think and take action; ask questions, insure we have the knowledge and keep asking ourselves and others questions until we do.

Don't be the weakest link, take action and be a leader leading leader.

This is also a great example of good Character, Competence and Chemistry as described by Bill Hybels in Courageous Leadership and Dan Cathy of Chic-Fil-A.


Follow well.