Do we follow or do we lead?

   Why do we follow, instead of lead? What makes a good leader? Why is it that being a follower doesn’t mean you need to be any good at it? Like a manager, a foreman or a supervisor, their crew should be many things to be successful, still follows the same logic. They are paid to follow, but follow they do. So why followers in social stance do followers make for good company, reliable or trustworthy? At least when they are being paid you can tell the good from the bad, and those who want to follow and those who want to kiss up. In a social stance you have two ways to go. One being the trend setter, the gossiper, the one who knows everything you’re looking for. The second one being the salesperson, they got to entertain you with whatever they can do to keep your attention and your following, put suggestions in your mind to keep you around and for the most part serve their followers to keep or grow those followers.

   What does it take to be a good follower? Why do people believe it’s the easier choice? It’s a belief in convenience. Effort to find answers when the most convenience will always be the most popular, not the definitive but most chosen. As time passes and generations are born the translation and source of information developed changes and thus creates a new wave of outlook past down and changed through every generation. Those who could lead often left behind because seeking potential was often crutched by each individual trait of life, upbringing and surroundings. Often found if you were middle class or poor you can’t afford to be crazy, and those who are wealthy enough could. Same would then apply to why those wealthy enough writing a simple message that everyone reads like the latest news that if written by anyone lesser known, no one would give a second thought if they even read it at all.

   So how can a person be a good leader without a following in the beginning? Are leaders bred? Like in the army when you start out the lowest rank and work your way up, and as you do the more knowledge you gain, the more seniority you have, and the more people follow you. It may make you a leader, but it does not mean you will be a great one by definition. Experience above all else brings good leadership. Having no experience and placed as a leader does not make a leader. The endless pursuit to make more money without any effort, or get a great position in a job with no experience just to make more money, leads to bigger risks and even bigger downfalls. A good leader is knowing of his weakness and seeks to improve it. A good leader knows tough choices will always need to be made and that to be a great leader it is not a popularity contest. Those seeking popularity are rarely good leaders in the end.  Often overshadowed by events at the time, the latest trends, or hyped up words spoken by either a very clever minded word play or action, while they watch one hand while they ignore the other, leadership is not a game, it is a way of life.

   What do followers choose to do that places them so firmly in their ways to follow rather than speak up on their own terms, forfeit rights and depend on others? Maybe in the presence of leadership they feel more confident in the pursuits left to those who lead to keep their own lives simple. Complicated decisions are not enjoyable and in the wrong hands can destroy a person. Often the case that following gives you more time to handle other choices and decisions, frees up space in the mind for other useful information. It is like seeing what you want to see. Those who see the poverty, endless crime, pain and suffering and how it tortures the soul. Those who don’t look that direction, see what’s in front of them and nothing more. Leading a life blind or as they say ignorance is bliss. Not that anyone is ignorant for not wanting to see the world for all that cripples it. Earth’s resources or the never ending changes to the ecosystem. We are born both followers and leaders and I believe the choices we make despite location or upbringing we choose our path that leads us either way. After all it’s just as saying someone born in a wheel chair can look at it as a crutch and live that way or decide to be more than the chair. So a leader can be very much any one of us, with enough effort on our parts we can become it.

   With that being said, what’s wrong with being a follower. Be a strong support for a cause, be dependable and trustworthy and be a part of something as long as you make the choices, rather than be led blindly. Be aware, be smart, and be instinctive. You can have all the intelligence in the world and still be unable to stop a train based on your will. So be smart in a constructive way that works your way. Be a great follower with the traits of a leader who can think outside the box, still take a sideline when needed so you don’t break down, but also step up when the time is needed and you know what you are capable of doing. Don’t go into the world taking everything you see and hear as the most valid thing in the existence, ask questions, feed your knowledge and be aware of your surroundings. You don’t need to be a rebel to be free, just be someone unique, because even good leaders need ideas, and you could give ideas to those who have the ability to make a change, and those changes can’t happen without ideas from good followers.

   One thing you can’t forget though, even with years of experience it doesn’t mean you will either become a great leader, remain a great leader, or be done learning how to be a great leader. As years progress, things change in the world. Always growing, always expanding, and always changing. Leadership must be adaptable as the world is diverse and having the ability to adapt will always help you stay ahead because if you don’t you will become out of date and as they say put out to pasture. Does not mean you weren’t capable, and maybe even a great leader when your abilities were relevant. The world as we know it changes, we as people change. There are circumstances that change, what is considered appropriate changes. Does not mean where we came from was wrong or where we are going is wrong, just means as leaders we grow, as followers we grow. A cycle in time, each new day as a present, we are teachers, we are students. We are together to share and be as a whole, not divided. We lead to bring people together, we follow to join those who see the same as we do, to be a part of something.

Thanks for reading!