Leaders vs. Followers

After many learning experiences, what I believe to be a true leader is a person that can adapt himself/herself to many different situations, and never stops learning. He/She is always interacting with people, and getting everyone to work together under a common ground in order to produce fantastic results. People will follow him/her without even recognizing they have taken on the role of a follower… this is what makes the leader different from the others.

I found this on a inspirational site:

When leaders make a mistake, they say, “I was wrong.”
When followers make mistakes, they say, “It wasn’t my fault.”
A leader works harder than a follower and has more time;
a follower is always “too busy” to do what is necessary.
A leader goes through a problem;
a follower goes around it and never gets past it.
A leader makes and keeps commitments;
a follower makes and forgets promises.
A leader says, “I’m good, but not as good as I ought to be;”
a follower says, “I’m not as bad as a lot of other people.”
Leaders listen;
followers just wait until it’s their turn to talk.
Leaders respect those who are superior to them and tries to learn something from them;
followers resent those who are superior to them and try to find chinks in their armor.
Leaders feel responsible for more than their job;
followers say, “I only work here.”
A leader says, “There ought to be a better way to do this;”
followers say, “That’s the way it’s always been done here.”

From those sentences I can say a leader needs three major characteristics:

1. Have a clear vision.
2. Be willing and able to take people with you on a journey.
3. Using your strengths to make things work.

What stops a lot of leaders, or potential leaders from applying those 3 tenets is fear,simple as that. It is the fear that they’re going in the wrong direction, fear that people won’t follow or fear that they’ll fail. I think perhaps the biggest fear of any leader is that they’re not strong enough, that they don’t have enough of the traditional leadership traits in a sufficient quantity to be effective.

It’s that fear of being weak – or to put it another way, the fear of being too much of a follower – that drives them to behave in ways they think they ought to behave rather than using their natural leadership traits. That’s what can destroy a perfectly good leader.
Now, whether you have a leadership role at the beginning, a leadership role as a parent, a leadership role in a social group or whether you’re leading a whole country, you’re also allowed to be a follower.

Don’t think for one second that you have to lead constantly and can’t look to others or follow others. You need to lead consistently, yes, but not constantly.
Do you think that a president ( Nation Leader) doesn’t look up to anyone or feel inspired by anyone?
Being a great leader requires openness and willingness to go off-road and explore the unknown when necessary. That means that there has to be a balance between leading and following – leading forges your path, following helps you learn.
“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” John F. Kennedy

Just look at Twitter – everyone and anyone following all kinds of people. Even the big guys are following people, and I’d say the people who really get it are perfectly happy to follow people who might be perceived to have a lower status, simply because they know they can learn something from them.
Actually in order to bring you this article I had to follow someones’ lead as well ( Steve Errey’s the Confident guy) so this information could dictate my beliefs and help those who read it.