Great Followers Seek Those Who Take Bold Action

by Michael D. Hume, M.S.

You've heard the expression many times: "I never ask my people to do anything I don't do myself." If a leader can truly live by this philosophy, it's a powerful way to attract a strong followership. You want your team, and potential team members, to see you doing the things you want them to do.

But those should be worthwhile, inspiring things.

Years ago, I was so desperate for extra money (to feed my large young family) that I responded to an ad that read something like this: "Lousy boss, crummy hours, hard work, your paychecks won't bounce." Intriguing, huh? I figured they were looking for people who could see through the "hype," and that it probably was a much better opportunity than you'd think judging by the ad. Turns out it was a phone sales job, selling meat to schools, and it was completely as advertised: lousy boss, crummy hours, and hard work (I didn't stay long enough to see if my paychecks would bounce). The biggest lesson I learned from that one morning of "training," though, was how the lousy boss expected you to figure out how to do the job: he had one strong producer (I'll name her Sally) and the entire training program was to "sit with Sally" until you felt you got it and could pick up the phone and sell some meat to a school somewhere.

I will assert that Sally, not the lousy boss, was the closest thing to a leader in that organization. Sally was efficient, but she was far from inspiring... mostly because she was far from inspired herself. So the lesson for me was that it's not enough to model behaviors for your team... you have to be modeling inspiring behaviors. The whole idea is to inspire them to be (and do) more than they thought they could.

If you want to be a more inspirational leader, you have to go first. Take the bold action you want your team to take. Let them see you struggle as you reach for more within yourself than you might think possible... but make sure you can produce a regular flow of success. Consider what type of leader you would be inspired to follow: one who does easy things and makes them look easy, one who does easy things and makes them look hard, one who does hard things and makes them look hard (perhaps struggling TOO much), or one who does hard things and makes them look easy. Undoubtedly, you'd be more inspired by one of the latter two types. So the take-away is that there is no way to inspire a great followership by undertaking easy things.

Ask yourself these questions, and seriously ponder your answers as a form of self-inventory:

Do I really want to be a leader?

Can I be a success without being a leader?

What gives me the right to be a leader?

What kind of followership do I want to attract?

What would make a great follower seek inspiration and leadership from me?

What is my brand of leadership... for what do I really want to be known?

If you can have the kind of inner dialogue these questions could produce, you'll come up with a lot of ideas about how to become a more inspirational leader. And you'll undoubtedly reach the conclusion that life's too short for cranking out easy, routine tasks. So go first, and do the difficult and worthwhile stuff. Be healthy: instead of letting your followers see you eating junk food, let them see you go for a jog at lunch or take good supplements. Be successful: instead of letting your followers see you give up on a goal, let them see you double-down and work harder than anyone to acheive it; find the energy to start a side business and build it to success. And be inspired to do great things for yourself and others. People will follow... and they'll be the kind of people you want to work with.