Great Leadership / Followership In Business...

...is a lot like great dancing !!...
by David Bookout

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, break, hands & twirl - 5,6,7,8, and back... Dancing is a wonderful metaphor for leadership, and follower-ship in business because just like great dance teams great business teams know how to share the leadership role. The key is learning to effectively share control - back and forth - as needed to move with maximum velocity. Observe any highly effective business, or dance team and you will see the leader making requests ( let's now focus on this new sector - twirl left ), and the followers moving to fulfill that request. AND, if you look carefully, you'll notice that the followers have complete control over how they fulfill. Outside of breaking ethical, or legal standards effective leaders aren't concerned with exactly how things get done. Effective leaders care about results, velocity, and mood, and not necessarily always in that order.

Unfortunately a more common interpretation of leadership, particularly in business, is that it is a one way street. People think that the "Boss" controls everything. Subsequently, those followers want to lead so badly that they forget to watch where they themselves are going, and in doing so they forget that their true value is playing their position the best that it can be played. They forget that the way to build a successful Personal Brand is to become virtuoso in their current role.

Ten Quick Tips To Being A GREAT Follower:

01 - Know your position ( role ) inside and out.

02 - Don't fall into the common trap of being entitled.

03 - Observe, study and understand the business game your in.

04 - Remember that respectful, public decent opens the door to new thinking.

05 - Don't undermine your leader with private conversations about other directions.

06 - Study best practices, and refine and invent new ones. This is where you can make your Personal Brand shine, and stand out.

07 - Make valuable offers to your leader BEFORE you just go and fulfill them.

08 - Study and learn your direct leader's role.

09 - Remember that the best apprentice is the one that anticipates the tool that is needed BEFORE the craftsman needs it.

10 - Publicly declare that you want to be a good follower ( not this exact language ) to attract the help of others. Pay particular attention to what other successful leaders and followers advise and do.

Ten Quick Tips To Being A GREAT Leader:

01 - Know you're position ( role ) inside and out.

02 - Don't fall into the common trap of being entitled.

03 - Observe, study and understand the business game you're in.

04 - Remember that respectful, public decent opens the door to new thinking.

05 - Empower your followers to be creative, think and do for themselves.

06 - Study best practices, and refine and invent new ones. This is where you can make you're Personal Brand shine, and stand out.

07 - Make effective requests of your followers.

08 - Have compassion when followers don't understand.

09 - Past the healthy debate of decent and co-creation DO NOT have sentimentality for followers that don't want to follow.

10 - Publicly declare that you want followers to offer reciprocal leadership in their discreet domains of expertise. Know these areas well enough not to be blind sided.

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