Mastery of the skill – Followership

It is common to see the phrase “possesses leadership qualities”, “team player” and the likes when you go through job seekers or current employees’ resumes/curriculum vitae. However, in over ten years of working with various organizations in business, academic and religious settings, the skill many of us need to develop and master is “FOLLOWERSHIP”. It is costing a lot of groups and organizations.

It is natural as humans to always want to lead others. It is natural to always want to be in the position of authority; being the one dishing out instructions while others follow whether or not we have the relevant skill, experience, exposure, know withal or not. But the truth is ,we can not all be leaders at the same time. It is very important that we recognize and accept this truth. At certain points and times in our lives we will have to take the back seat and be led by others, at this point we are “followers”; Followers who should be willing and humble enough to take instructions from people who have been placed above us or whom we have voluntarily submitted ourselves to their leadership by becoming part of a unit or organization.

I am not talking about team playing now; I am talking about complete submission to authority, vulnerability, taking instructions from someone who by some virtue has been placed above us without feeling threatened, incapable or downtrodden. There are people who will remain rebellious or never cooperative in a group until they are given some title or made leaders in some capacity.

Being a follower and being great at it is NOT a sign of weakness or failure. It is in fact “strength”, great strength. A display of lack of this skill while relating with bosses is what corporate organizations mostly refer to as “insubordination”. Look around you and the world at large; the best and most successful leaders are those who have mastered the skill of “FOLLOWERSHIP”.

Think about these things.

Photo source :ebiznes.com

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