Always #1 in her class: star athlete on the soccer team: class president, Then a meteoric rise up the corporate ladder of an international manufacturing firm. Hired as a financial analyst she soon was sitting with the suits in the board room. Travel abroad, An influential voice, she led others to buy into and implement the firm’s vision. Charismatic, verbose, she has been a recognized leader wherever the waves of career life have taken her.
The economic downturn crushed her upward climb. It’s not easy for a 35 year old with a base salary of $300,000 to land on her feet after being “downsized” by a firm which soon shuttered its doors forever.
With a rolodex of hundreds of contacts, networking her way into interviews was relatively easy. The employment offers were, to say the least, startling. Positions at the top of organizational pyramids are limited during a time of economic contraction.
Eventually a position as a vice president of this and that in a stable, family owned firm became available and she accepted.
She found herself posited in a nondescript office, no windows, no executive assistant . A minion in a company where change, out of the box thinking, and the aggressive charge to gain market share are anathema to the family decision makers.
The suits walk past her office on the way to the board room. Arms filled with binders, charts, and folders with power point slides. Determined, shoulders back, and air of confidence that she remembers well. The chit chat of decision makers fills the corridors.
Meetings end, the directors head off for an extended lunch . Fond memories of when she was a power broker.
Afternoon arrives, and it is time for the post board – 2 o’clock “ status meeting”. It is the time where an “overview is presented” – where she is expected to sit, listen, smile, and agree. Then it’s delegation time. Study this, get statistics on that, develop a strategy for program implementation. Oh yes, she has the opportunity for input, ideas and recommendations. But the real gutsy broad strokes of decision making are made in the board room.
She knows better strategies and more efficient ways of moving the company forward. Biting her tongue, suppressing her intellect are the challenges of the moment. Being a follower requires loyalty, patience, and caution. Three qualities that she expected of others on her way up the corporate ladder. A visionary, she is now expected to think in the immediate – the short term. The subtle permutations of decision making are not of her concern.
Can she suppress, until the next opportunity presents itself, her natural gifts of leadership and charismatic decision making?
Being a successful follower requires a somewhat different/ but complimentary skill set of a leader. For our former executive, the following are some characteristics of being a successful follower:
• Self management
• Commitment
• Focus
• Skill mastery
• Courage – credibility and honesty
• Critical thinking- leaning forward into the situation at hand while anticipating future requirements
• Highly participative
• Courageously dissents, shares credit, habitually exercises superior judgment
• Active (not passive) team member.
As a follower do you embody these characteristics?
As a leader – do you expect followers to embody these characteristics which ultimately serve as the foundational skills for leadership development? Perhaps you might want to consider them as part of your next leadership skills program.
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