More Thoughts on Followship
The most clicked on post in this blog is this one with the little girl singing the Lord’s prayer. So far, over 200 people have hit that link (I mean, she is really cute). The second most popular link in this post I did a few months ago on followship. I’m going to add a few additional thoughts on to that post.
I’ve talked to folks I have worked with, both in business and in ministry, and it appears (and I agree) that I am a follower/leader. Specifically, I try to lead from the middle. As I previously mentioned, every leader must be a follower. He must be accountable to someone from whom he has derived his authority. I know of men who are great leaders who, the moment you meet them, their personality takes up the room and you can sense their greatness (I’m not being facetious here). Kenneth Haney is one of these type of men. He’s a visionary and whatever room he’s in even if he isn’t in charge he’s in charge (I hope that makes sense). I am not that kind of leader.
My leadership style is to surround myself with folks who complement my weaknesses (as they are many). For instance, the Sunday School Secretary here in Ohio was a Youth President for the ALJC some time ago. He is very strong at running youth camps. For this reason, I am completely hands off when we go to camp. I don’t feel, just because I’m the director, that I have to be hands on in-charge when there is someone far more capable of doing the job. Ditto for any number of things be it (in the church realm) leading service, doing promotion or whatever. In the business world, I am more of an operations type guy. My business partner is the perfect yin to my yang. She is a rainmaker, a marketer with an immense number of connections in her Rolodex. My job is to make sure the bills get paid, the email works properly and, in summary, make sure the trains run on time. In both cases, because we have complementary strengths, we become accountable to one another to complete the task. Leading by following.
Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book, Team of Rivals, explain how Abraham Lincoln did much the same thing. Take folks with varying strengths (and even agendas) and put them together. While it appears Lincoln had lost his mind (keeping his friends close and his enemies closer) he in fact build a strong team by not having to be the “alpha dog”.
Bottom line, every leader (not named Jesus Christ) is accountable to someone. By understanding this we become better leaders. The saying is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is one pitfall of leadership. I’ll discuss others in a later post.
