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INTRODUCTION
There has been always considerable discussion about connection between great leaders and good followers. It is said that in order to be a good leader person should be a good follower.
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In my point of, a good leader is the person who also has been a good follower, person who has proven oneself ability to follow the instructions, who can subjugate one’s will to the will of others who has undertaken the responsibility of leadership, able to make constructive comments and debate issues when necessary and able to stand up for the principles in which one believes.
The person who can manage to perform about mentioned missions can be called a good follower.
However, it does not mean all good followers become always good leaders. There are some people who are astounding as choir singers but awful as choir directors. There are many great followers who are not good leaders. Nevertheless, it should be noted that good leaders and good followers usually posses the same characteristics and responsibilities which may be the main reason for considering an opinion that a good leaders also obliged to be a good follower. Leaders the ones who have brought our life many changes, make differences and make our life more interesting and interactive. But, if there were not followers there would not be a good leader, as, followers the most essential assets of a good leader.
1. Some people understand a leader simply as somebody whom people can follow or as someone who guides or directs others, while others define leader as a person who affects a group of people towards the achievement of a goal.
With regard to follower, follower is a person who follows another`s teachings and belief, one who admits the command, guidance and leadership of another one (www.vtaide.com). Some held conception that to be a good leader you ought to be a good follower. In order to be a leader, a person at first should learn how to be a good follower. Initially, majority of great leaders followed in the footsteps of other good leaders and utilized training to achieve their leadership goals. In order to have followers, a good leader must have ability to comprehend his or her followers and what the followers desire from the leader. And, the best way to implement it, the leader should be a good follower.
As, rich people usually cannot understand poor people`s condition, if only the rich did not experience the poverty in their own life. The poor people can comprehend each other better because they have similar problems. Moreover, we are all followers in some spheres of our lives. And in this case, we can obtain some essential qualities and skills which help us to become a good leader. The reason for this is training which considered as a powerful tool in order to attract one's vision to higher sights, increasing their performance to a higher standard, and forming a personality beyond its usual limitations to its full potential. For instance, in the history, the Apostle Peter had made a lot of mistakes before he followed Jesus. After following Jesus for three years Apostle Peter and his fellow-disciples “turned the world upside down”( John C.Maxwell,1998) Besides, leaders and followers divide some characteristics.
2. These are the following qualities:
Awareness
Сurrently, leаders have to know about different audiences including board members, customers, coworkers, colleagues, and the audience on the whole. You oblige to know what it tаkes to bring them аlong, if you desire to be good a leader. In order to be a follower you should educate yourself how to be conscious of the requirements of public as well as their potential to “make one`s life hell from one second to the next” (Barbarra Kellerman) .Good followers study to read public and comprehend what distresses and stimulates them.
Diplomacy
When good followers meet a co-worker with frantic political beliefs or an offensive manager, they are maybe not going to struggle every fight. To take part in a position of the follower is less risky, easier, and often simpler. Good followers observe how to handle with those who possess dissimilarities while not disregarding those differences. That is an essential leadership feature, for the reason that a manager or leader cannot afford to be unconscious to the relations of those people who surrounds him or her (www.success.bz).
Courage
Being a good follower indicates owning the bravery to disagree if you believe your manager, superior or leader is acting something incorrectly. That is always complicated, but it demands the strength of belief which is very essential to good leadership. Being a good leader is complex in methods that are rather alike to being a good follower. It means paying attention, being engaged, having the bravery to cry out when something is not proper way. Also, it means possessing the power and activity to encourage a leader or manager who is implementing things wisely and well.
Collaboration
In many cases, the leader influences if and how the goals are accomplished while followers are able to implement or break. Even though the leader may receive most of the credit, in many business sectors, followers are the people who are acting much of the creative work. Leaders who have been good followers comprehend how to work with people who can help to bring out the well enough in them. One of great leader said that “Was it the imaginative collective of team members at Apple, or did Steve Jobs really invent the iPod and iPhone? Currently, leaders may be reckoned up not only by how much is accomplished or produced, but by the quality of its members and the team or organization” (Ronald E. Riggio).
Critical Thinking
You need to be able to believe for yourself, in order to be a good follower. The best followers encourage and help the leader when he or she is acting the correct thing, and stand up to the leader when he or she is directed in the wrong direction. Many of the same qualities that we are enraptured with leaders competence, motivation, intelligence-are similar characteristics that we desire in the very best followers (www.lifehack.org). Besides, leaders, in spite of their degree, they also must follow.
3. Even though, leaders and followers share the same qualities, also, there is still much dissimilarity between them. Leader has to be isolated and independent in order to rely on himself. A bright example of this can be seen in the book called “Ender`s game”Ender had been isolated in order to make him struggle. That was the only way he would ever have been otherwise. Moreover, it made him untrusting, angry, strong and lonely. But, maybe these qualities made him a better soldier” (michaelhyatt.com). . Leader is usually the person who is being relied on his followers. Followers only must be efficient during the struggle. They have to be capable to implement the commands by their leader, with own skills. In other cases, it is not so essential to be that competent. They could ask aid from their leader or friends. But, leaders, cannot ask for aid from his followers because, otherwise his followers may consider him incompetent.
Being a leader is not as easy as being a follower. Leaders illustrate inventiveness; when they have a general clutch for a project they can strategically lay out the most appropriate way to reach the final goal while followers require step by step instruction and expect direction to follow by the leader. They need regular approval and guarantee, in case, something goes wrong. Leaders are not content with simply expecting for the next step because they are very active. They disdain inactivity and when there is lack of progress. They are motivated by subjugating any obstacles in their way and accept responsibility. With regard to followers, they escape from amenability and would prefer when somebody else is “amenable” instead of them. Also, they agree with inaction as long as a leader does not motivate them to carry out the objectives. When followers usually experience obstacles in certain kind of work, they are not capable to manage with them alone.
Leader is the one who can help to a follower how to handle with difficulties. Leaders are not afraid of a strong sense of anxiety or fear; on the contrary they prosper on it. They show that they have ability to manage with everything and very quick in making decisions. They attack fear and tackle it head on and show it who the boss is. With reference to followers, when they have to make a decision, they usually feel fear which causes to escape from a challenge without any real exculpation. Because they try rarely to make something new and they are not capable to risk (Dale Carnegie, 2010). Followers disdain any alterations and attempt to avoid them. Leaders are innovators and intuitive so they accept changes. Moreover, they are aware that sometimes it is possible that some changes can be very beneficial and may help people to achieve their objectives as well as improving and flourishing their experiences too.
4. Like many traits of the prominent people, being a good leader is an elusive characteristic and very complicated to describe. Many people have different conception of a great leader. But, in my view, a good leader is the person who, first of all, has ability to make impossible things possible in order to be distinguished from other people and his followers. Also, a leader needs to comprehend what objectives and purposes are to be accomplished and needs to stick to those objectives and purposes and by never compromising with the truth. Even though, there are times when leader may have to yield a little, bend a little, but he should always have a clear vision of the final objective that he and his followers have wish to achieve. He must focus completely and totally to attaining the aim, by not permitting himself to be diverted, inactive, complaisant and negligent (www.fastcompany.com).In order to be a good leader, I would try to be quicker to evaluate and criticize myself in order that I may benefit from my personal self-analysis and amend myself constantly and try to not to be hurry to adjudicate others.
A good leader has to listen to constructive remark and must hear frank complaints and reckon up them with good criticism in order to appeal that which is affirmative and positive to the achievement of the objectives to which I am dedicated. If, I were a leader the first thing I would do is analyzing the aim which is needed to achieve and arranging everything in proper way. Analyzing includes not only finding out the goals, but, it also comprises followers or people who will work with you and what is the best appropriate method to attain the goal with the help of your team. When you analyze your followers, you will be aware what they desire and which qualities and abilities they have and how to help them to overcome and turn their weaknesses into the strength in order to achieve common goals.
Moreover, it is vitally essential to work out and develop a strategy in order to attain objectives with a help of your team and find out your concur rents and enemies and how to overcome them so as to become more powerful and successful. A bright example of a great leader that I would like to take is Alan Mulally who is CEO of Ford Motor Corporation and also has taken the third place in the list of Great leaders in the world (Fortune Magazine, 2014). He says that “One of the most essential tasks of the leader’s work is intensifying the process we are utilizing to attain our objectives. Furthermore, it is not only the way of simply asking, “How are we doing?” It is requiring, “How are we performing against the project? What are the spheres that demands particular attention? At the end of the year, what strategies have we worked out to ameliorate our fulfillment in next year?”(Rirk Kinkland, McKinsey Publishing 2013). 5. Some key qualities that I would like to possess and implement, if I were a leader are the following: Honesty and Responsibility
An essential and basis element of a great leader is honesty. Your business and followers are a reflection of yourself, and if you are honest and behave yourself ethically it will be a key value for your followers to follow suit. Moreover, if you are not honest, responsible and reliable person you will not have people who will follow you. So, if your co-workers and followers do not trust you, it is impossible to be a leader. It is very important for the people who will follow you to be sure that they can rely on you and that you keep your promises. Also, the good leader should be dedicated towards his or her job because it shows that you feel responsibility. However, a good leader also must differentiate the people and followers whom he can trust in order not to be sure that his followers will always support him during attaining the goals. Communication
Good communication skills aid the leader to communicate easily and to share ideas or exchange with opinions with his followers. Also, it is important to elude misunderstanding in an organization because knowing what you desire to be implemented might seem transparent in your head, but if you try to clarify it to somebody else and it may be comprehended in a different way which may cause to a problem. So, being capable to succinctly and clearly describe what you want to be accomplished is vitally essential. Besides, a leader should possess this trait to communicate with his client with various backgrounds. Vision
Being a great leader also includes possessing and developing vision. It means having "vision" to forecast the future as if it were already here. A bright example can be Steve Job, who often performed this. He created a transparent picture in minds of people how a new output would alter the world -- before even it was launched. He had ability to make humans excited about the future which he imagined in his mind. Good leaders must develop the talent of vision in them as well as in followers to encourage them to be better in those skills which they possess. It helps to commit innovations and attain common goals.
Positive Attitude
A good leader should have a positive thinking and attitude in order to stimulate confidence and acquire inner strength. It is essential to remember, that confident and calm leader is a good example for his followers to feel the same. Besides, a great leader must motivate his followers and people around. If your followers feel happiness and are motivated, there are more chances to reach the best achievements and moving ahead. Also, a good leader must be capable to solve problem and find the solution to every problem which he encounters in life and not avoid it. And, it is usually easier to find solution to the problem when you are calm, confident and have positive mind-set.
Conclusion
By way of conclusion, it can be marked that being a leader is more complicated than many people expect it. Being leader requires many efforts, hard work and a plenty of affirmative traits which hare complex to attain. With regard to followers, it is easier to be a follower rather than being a leader. Even though, followers and leaders share similar qualities, not every good follower can become a good leader because there are many differences as well. One of the main differences between them is responsibility.
Leaders oblige to be responsible not only for their actions, but, as well as they must be responsible for deeds of their followers. Furthermore, leaders are braver, creative and more inclined to risk. People who try to avoid challenges are better to be followers than being a leader of a group of people. I think every leader must always learn in order to be very smart and try to obtain more knowledge and experience in different kind of spheres. But, the main task of leaders to help people to achieve common goals and direct his followers. Also, leaders have to always try to be a great person who can change the world to the positive side and make it better.
References
1. Barbara Kellerman [2009] “How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders” Available [online]: http://www.fastcompany.com/3029840/bottom-line/5-ways-being-a-good-follower-makes-you-a-better-leader [March 17, 2009] 2. Carol Giannantonio[2011] “A Great Leader Is A Great Follower” Available [online]:http://www.success.bz/articles/1833/a_great_leader_is_a_great_follower [July,2011] 3. Dale Carnegie [2010] “How to Win Friends and Influence People” Available [online]: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/15-best-leadership-books-every-young-leader-needs-read.html [February, 2008] 4. Fortune Magazine[2014] “Fortune ranks the World's 50 Greatest Leaders” Available [online]: http://fortune.com/2014/03/20/fortune-ranks-the-worlds-50-greatest-leaders/ [March, 2014] 5. Gwen Moran[2007] “A person who influences a group of people towards the achievement of a goal” Available [online]:http://www.vtaide.com/gleanings/leader.htm[September 26, 2007] 6. James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner[2010] “The Truth about leadership” Available [online]: http://www.fastcompany.com/3029840/bottom-line/5-ways-being-a-good-follower-makes-you-a-better-leader[September, 2010] 7. John C. Maxwell [1998] “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership ” Available from:http://michaelhyatt.com/why-the-best-leaders-are-great-followers.html [September, 2008] 8. Rik Kirkland[2006] “Leading in the 21st century” Available [online]: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/leading_in_the_21st_century_an_interview_with_fords_alan_mulally [ November, 2013] 9. Ronald E. Riggio[2013] “Leaders lead. Followers follow“Available[online]: http://www.fastcompany.com/3029840/bottom-line/5-ways-being-a-good-follower-makes-you-a-better-leader[April, 2014]
The Dual Role of Leading Followership. (2016, Aug 15). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/a-good-leader-2-essay
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