Leadership - Look Behind You
Now of course if you are the new VP of Get it Done in the great Acme Widget Company and you're like the one place I did a gig recently and they actually have a fast track program called Future Leaders you will have followers. But … it may not be because you're so good. It just might be because you hold a position and nothing more. Let me explain.
We'll start with the question of why someone is following you. It is for one of these reasons.
1. Position: This is pretty simple, you hold a position and there is respect and culture that says people who work for that 'position' will follow you because they have to. An example would be the military or the police. There is clear rank and whether you truly are a leader or not, people must follow your lead. This category is the norm in most organizations.
2. Desire: When someone follows you out of desire they want something you can give them. It could be more money, promotion, position or any number of other things. This is pretty simple and is found anywhere leadership positions are found and it is probably one of the more common reasons people follow you.
3. Demand: Here you'll find people who are perhaps long term employees and they work in the department or company you now head and they simply must go along with you and your direction or lack thereof. They are found in every organization.
4. Leadership: This is what you want for the majority of the people in your organization. They follow your lead and direction because of who you are and where you are going. You have a vision and an ability to communicate it that people feel inspired and want to go along with you. True leaders have followers of eighty percent in this category.
As a leader you want to make sure you understand your followers and why they are there. You will never get one-hundred percent of your followers in category four of true leadership but you should be honing your skills as a leader to get there, at least eighty-percent. Yet most leaders don't even know or care about why someone follows them. You need to be different.
Leaders have followers because of who they are and where they are going. In corporate America today most so called leaders fall into category one or two and are happy to be there because they don't know the difference. You'll always have ten percent in category three and each person has a mix of followers for sure, but true leaders are going somewhere that others genuinely want to go. You have to develop that kind of leadership.
Ed Kugler
Related Tags: leadership, self improvement, management, manager, leader, leading, leading people, empowement
Ed Kugler has been living change since the jungles of Vietnam where he was a Marine Sniper for two-years in the Vietnam War. He came home to a country he hadn't left and began work as a mechanic and truck driver. Since then he has worked his way into the executive suite of Frito Lay, Pepsi Cola and Compaq Computer where he was Vice President of Worldwide Logistics, a position he achieved with no college degree. Ed left in 1997 to consult and write. He is the author of Dead Center - A Marine Sniper's Two Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War and five other books and counting. He regularly consults with some o the nations leading companies on organizational change and coaches individuals to make the most of their lives.
Ed is the father of three, grandfather to three and has been married to the same woman for 38 years and counting. http://www.nomorebs.com
http://www.edkugler.com
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