A leader is indeed as good (or bad) as his followers. It is obvious then that to improve himself, a good leader should constantly strive to improve the quality of his followers. While leaders are trained with an objective of honing their skills and characteristics of good leadership are extensively researched upon, isn’t it surprising that almost no formal training is imparted to produce better followers?

The most visible form of leadership is undoubtedly “political leadership” & we know how valuable followers are to them. Without followers, a Political Leader (more so) is a zero. A politician therefore ensures that his followers remain fiercely loyal to him – the only important training that a political follower needs is thus a lesson in loyalty. Recognizing this, political leaders purchase loyalty by generously distributing benefits that accrue to them due to their political office. Followers in other fields, especially those in the field of business, are not so lucky.

Effective “leaders” also need to be good “followers”. How else would they ever know what good follower ship is all about? Let us examine dear readers, various parameters that could make us good “followers”. In a country such as ours where we produce more leaders than followers, this could indeed be the need of the day.

Do you have complete faith in the capabilities of your leader?
A doubting Thomas can never make a good follower. No leader is perfect and none can aspire to be so. Some of us are waiting for the day we will get a perfect person to lead us to “salvation” – whether in business or personal lives; we can keep waiting for ever. Can we not take into account the “net strength” of our leader (strengths minus weaknesses) instead of harping on why the weaknesses are not acceptable to us? You can always “change the ship” if this net strength is not acceptable but for God’s sake, once you have decided on that, give 100% loyalty to the leader

Offer constructive criticism!
A good follower considers offering critical inputs to the think tank of the team, as his sacred duty. He is neither worried about being isolated nor is afraid of speaking out his mind during the brainstorming sessions. Some of us are so anxious about our “popularity” that we would outwardly always agree with the leaders’ suggestions though that inner voice is blinking a red warning light. This world is not for shams – so don’t be one. Psychologists have long been saying that we learn far more from our critics than our goody-goody friends.

Don’t be disappointed if your advice is not accepted.
It is not as easy as it sounds, but do train yourself to develop that “aloofness” to reduce the disappointment that will eventually follow when your suggestions are rejected. A leader cannot accept all advice that comes his way – maybe it was just not your day. Why not accept the possibility that the leader has some compulsions that he is unwilling to share with you at that moment or has past experience that you lack? Thinking of stopping all further advice would be behaving like a petulant child.

Abide by the leader’s decision even if you are in personal disagreement!
Shouting from the rooftops about personal disagreement with the team decision, goes against all norms of good teamwork and is a sure sign of bad follower-ship. Members who surrender some personal goals for the sake of certain team goals go on to form excellent teams. All differences of opinion are to be aired within the closed doors of team meetings but once a decision is taken, the ownership of that decision is that of every member. Imagine the chaos that would have erupted had Akash Chopra addressed a press conference to explain how unfair it was to drop him from the playing eleven, in the third cricket test at Rawalpindi.

Try & compensate the leaders’ weaknesses with your own strengths.
If your boss in the office is scared of “computers” (because during his college days, computers were considered weird gadgets suitable only for hi-fi laboratories) and is therefore never comfortable with those omnipresent devices of today, help him out by using your own computing skills, instead of expecting him to learn new skills at this age. You will surely be found similarly wanting when one day you become the team leader and young upstarts of that era mock you with some other technological skill that they possess. Isn’t a team supposed to be a collection of individuals who work much better jointly than if they were to operate individually?

Good followers, like good leaders, are good listeners.
Many of us “listen” only if the talker speaks in a clipped English accent or if the speech is being delivered in an interesting manner. We get put off if too much statistics is being used or sometimes even pre-judge the speaker negatively if someone else has warned us about him. Good followers do not carry such blind spots. They make conscious efforts to seek relevant inputs (to the issue on hand) from whatever is being said.

Good followers soon exhibit good leadership skills.
No one is a permanent leader or follower. In fact there are circumstances when a person has to don different hats, even in the same team. All teams work with the help of sub-groups and a follower in one sub group may be the team leader in another. You may thus have to lead today, persons who lead you in other groups, just yesterday. Good followers always remember which hat they have donned and do justice to their assignment. An important ingredient of success in such situations is the ability of the person to keep his ego under control. It is this important trait that eventually makes this good follower into a great leader.

Enjoy the fellowship of fellow-followers
Research has shown that persons who enjoy their work are far more productive than their counterparts who huff and puff their way through assignments. Now can you think of occasions when human beings do not operate in groups? Except when we are asleep or when in the toilet (group toileting is not yet fashionable except maybe in NCC camps), we are always a part of some group. This is also the reason why prospective employers these days want to test group behavioral skills (before signing on an employee) apart from the candidate’s intelligence and academic performance. If you don’t enjoy fellowship, how can you ever expect to enjoy, working in a group? Good followers indeed enjoy fellowship of their colleagues

Now tell me frankly, how many of the above are you practicing in your own life? Give yourself one mark for every parameter that you think you have in you.

If you score 7 or 8, bingo – you are indeed an excellent follower and surely destined to be a good leader too;

if you score 5 or 6 points, well, you are on the right track but will need to work a little harder;

at 3 or 4 points do consider the possibility that you are probably not made to be a good follower and hence will make a lousy leader too;

at 1 or 2 points, just forget you ever read this article – you are cut out to be a “loner”; how about migrating to the Himalayas?

"Mr. Prakash Shesh, the author, has done his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad after his Masters in Physics from I.I.T. New Delhi. You may send your feedback to him by choosing an option at the top right corner of this page."