I believe I've discovered the key to great leadership, but it wasn't a secret that I had been desperately searching to find.
I am generally a person who prefers to stay in the background. I've watched and studied the people who were out in front of me, mimicking those who did it right and carefully avoiding the mistakes of those who did it wrong. I've learned from the ones who went before me. After a while, I was taught how to show others what I had learned. It is because of these things that I believe the best leaders are first great followers.
I played high school football in Texas. Each year, we started practice in the early mornings of the hot summer and tried to be finished around 3 p.m., before the vultures started circling above. One of the first things we youngsters learned were the various position drills. Depending on what positions you played, there were certain maneuvers you had to practice repeatedly in order to improve your skill. The coach would demonstrate what we were to do and then blow his whistle and watch us do it, correcting us as we needed it.
In the beginning, I always stood toward the back of the line and watched before I went. I did my best to concentrated on the people in front of me -- on what they did right and wrong -- and I learned to do it right. But by the time I was a senior, I had moved to the front of the line, and I knew that other guys were watching me the very same way that I had once watched others. I knew from being a follower that it was important to set a good example.
I also learned to advance in the workplace by watching and following. As a young man, I remember observing the veterans at work be called upon to take care of things far too advanced for a rookie like me. I knew I would one day be able to do those things myself, so -- like with those position drills -- I watched and followed the example being set, adopting the good practices and avoiding the bad as one would avoid potholes in the road. Soon, I came to know my job well and people started to depend on me.
I began to consider the many qualities that could be attributed to good followers which also applied to good leaders, like knowing the importance of being ready when called, being trustworthy and relied upon by one's peers, working for the betterment of the team or group, or denying one's self so that someone or something else can be elevated. I found that there was a definite commonality between two things that originally appeared to be opposite. Following and leading weren't so different after all.
The greatest leaders for me have been where I have been. They were once followers who learned to do things the right way and, in turn, learned to teach others to do the same.
That is the secret of great leadership: being a great follower.
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Robert Honeycutt is the office manager at The Weekly Vista. His email address is [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.
Editorial on 01/11/2017