The Art of Followship

Plenty has been written and spoken on how to be a good or great leader. One key aspect I believe is often missed in teaching people leadership principals is the principal of Followship. The art of followship is about learning to be a good leader by first being a good follower of leaders. There are several key points to learning leadership through the art of followship.

Find a good leader

Obvious I know but it is integral to learning good leadership habits. Followship learning operates on the principal that more is ‘caught than taught.’ Find a good leader and stick to them like glue. Be a sponge and absorb.

Be observant

Followship is about learning how a leader leads. How do they make decisions, treat people, respond to problems and react to changed circumstances. It’s an invaluable Leadership 101 subject.

Patience

My experience is that many potential leaders want the power and position now. Fortunately leadership is a maturing process not a knowledge one. It is about serving your time in followship learning the craft. Where many people go wrong is they want to skip a few rungs in the ladder by taking short cuts. They might look good on the outside but the inside is empty.

Followship has a cost

Learning leadership this way has a cost in time, ego and pride. Serve your apprenticeship in following well and the opportunities will open without you having to create them. One of my favourite leadership quotes by Jeff Bezos is “You earn a reputation by doing the hard things well.” You gain your leadership credentials in followship by doing the hard yards.

Even great leaders follow

One thing followship tells you are that great leaders follow too. Most great leaders themselves were nurtured by someone else and still have a system of accountability around them. The lesson you learn to be a great leader is to deal with pride. Great leaders will have a succession plan. Poor leaders are insecure and consequently don’t raise up other leaders.

Final notes

If you are an aspiring leader you need to seek someone you admire and stick to them like glue.

If you want to raise strong leaders in your organisation, company or church then you need to identify potential in your group and then apprentice them to yourself. Make yourself to be available to counsel, teach and be watched as you lead. There maybe a cost to you in the short term but you will reap the rewards of your efforts.        

Speed of the Leader; Speed of the Team

This statement from an ad on radio station 96five has been running through my head for the last week or so and challenging me on how I conduct my life. I think God has been challenging me on how I lead or more importantly how I influence those people around me.

For the purposes of this article I want to use the word influencer instead of leader. In my experience with leaders of churches, I have noted that when a minister has had to step down from being the senior minister, his sin is normally reflected in the life of the congregation. If his marriage has broken up, then there are a lot of broken marriages in the congregation, if it is sexual immorality then it is in the congregation. Speed of the leader; speed of the team.

So we as influencers set the pattern for those we influence. So who do we influence? Partners, children, friends, workmates, other people.

So what are the hallmarks of an influencer/leader:
• Encourager
• Listener
• Approachable
• Visionary
• Example
• Disciplined
• Transparent
• Charismatic
• Consistent
• Empowerer
• Discipler

So what is a Biblical pattern for an influencer? No where in the Bible can I see where people were taken away to be trained as influencers. There was no school of leadership. People were discipled on the job. Paul took Timothy and taught him through the school of hard knocks. Paul got rid of Mark, Barnabas then took hold of Mark, worked with him until Paul says later can you please send Mark because I need him. Jesus did all his stuff with the disciples on the job.

Here is the first major paradigm shift. Leadership/influence is actually caught not taught. It is not about creating a bunch of rules to live by. It is about looking for teachable moments to learn from. It is about showing how we conduct ourselves in every day circumstances. I need to model the behaviour I expect to see in my wife, children, friends etc. No room for hypocritical behaviour.

The next major paradigm shift is that influence/leadership is actually about making ourselves redundant. It is about empowering those around us to be ultimately able to live life without looking for direction from us. As a parent that is what I hope will happen with my kids. That, in the end, the way my kids conduct their life is an imitation of Kylie and I and it becomes second nature to them. They don’t have to ask us what to do; they automatically know what to do. That is true influence and discipleship.

Speed of leader; speed of the team then is conditional on us as influencers empowering those who are around us to become the people God wants them to be and ultimately have us as influencers becoming redundant to their life. It is to provide stimulation to their life not motivation.