According to Wikipedia Follow the leader is a children's game. First a leader or "head of the line" is chosen, then the children all line up behind the leader. The leader then moves around and all the children have to mimic the leader's actions. Any players who fail to follow or do what the leader does are out of the game.
I have seen this acted out in a business context almost to the point of absurdity. If a chief executive was a man and had a moustache then all his immediate male direct reports grew moustaches, regardless of personal taste. If he or she always went into an office and never worked from home and arrived every day at 6 am (in their chauffer driven car) and left at 10pm then so did everybody else, regardless on the impact on their personal lives and the challenges of public transport.
There may of course be good reason for spending long hours in offices and it can go with the territory of being a senior manager. Also, leaders are chosen to do just that, lead, and if their subordinates won’t follow then there is another problem. However slavishly following a leader without question can be a recipe for disaster in a professional practice. They may not always be right, and they may also suddenly change direction, turning up one morning clean shaven!
The American author Stephen M Shapiro in his book Best Practices are Stupid advocates constant innovation When you copy someone’s best practice, you are not staying ahead; you are playing a game of catch-up. By the time you implement someone else’s best practice, they are onto the next practice.
Even in the military there are limits to blindly following orders. See this article which says "I was only following orders," has been unsuccessfully used as a legal defense in hundreds of cases (probably most notably by Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg tribunals following World War II).
So, as a leader I suggest finding ways to obtain feedback on your performance and above all listen and seek out views before acting. I always try to consult before acting if at all possible. This can be particularly important in setting direction and strategy – see this Harvard Business Review article Being a Strategic Leader Is About Asking the Right Questions which concludes Being a strategic leader is about asking the right questions and driving the right dialog with your team. In doing so, you raise the team’s collective ability to be strategic. The more competent you become in asking these questions, the better positioned you are to drive progress for your team and your organization.
If you are a follower, then find ways to understand and contribute to your bosses actions especially if you think there may be a better way. This should be done subtly and sensitively – not just saying “It’s totally ridiculous what you are doing” which will not go down well and be counter productive. As this article How to Tell Your Bosses They're Wrong how you go about this is important when you're graceful and adept, you can help your boss to put things right without upsetting anyone.
Actually if as a leader you have a growth mindset as advocated by the American academic and author Carol Dweck (see this blog) all of this should be pushing at an open door. Taking the time to understand and take on board the views of others informs good decision making. Former General Electric (GE) CEO Jack Welch wrote in his book, Winning:“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Or as British-American author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek shrewdly observed “A boss has the title, a leader has the people”.
Andy Stanley wisely advised that “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say”.
While Mao Tse-tung suggests "We should never pretend to know what we don't know, we should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below, and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lowest levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders."
Or put perhaps more succinctly by the American president Woodrow Wilson "The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people."
I have seen this acted out in a business context almost to the point of absurdity. If a chief executive was a man and had a moustache then all his immediate male direct reports grew moustaches, regardless of personal taste. If he or she always went into an office and never worked from home and arrived every day at 6 am (in their chauffer driven car) and left at 10pm then so did everybody else, regardless on the impact on their personal lives and the challenges of public transport.
There may of course be good reason for spending long hours in offices and it can go with the territory of being a senior manager. Also, leaders are chosen to do just that, lead, and if their subordinates won’t follow then there is another problem. However slavishly following a leader without question can be a recipe for disaster in a professional practice. They may not always be right, and they may also suddenly change direction, turning up one morning clean shaven!
The American author Stephen M Shapiro in his book Best Practices are Stupid advocates constant innovation When you copy someone’s best practice, you are not staying ahead; you are playing a game of catch-up. By the time you implement someone else’s best practice, they are onto the next practice.
Even in the military there are limits to blindly following orders. See this article which says "I was only following orders," has been unsuccessfully used as a legal defense in hundreds of cases (probably most notably by Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg tribunals following World War II).
So, as a leader I suggest finding ways to obtain feedback on your performance and above all listen and seek out views before acting. I always try to consult before acting if at all possible. This can be particularly important in setting direction and strategy – see this Harvard Business Review article Being a Strategic Leader Is About Asking the Right Questions which concludes Being a strategic leader is about asking the right questions and driving the right dialog with your team. In doing so, you raise the team’s collective ability to be strategic. The more competent you become in asking these questions, the better positioned you are to drive progress for your team and your organization.
If you are a follower, then find ways to understand and contribute to your bosses actions especially if you think there may be a better way. This should be done subtly and sensitively – not just saying “It’s totally ridiculous what you are doing” which will not go down well and be counter productive. As this article How to Tell Your Bosses They're Wrong how you go about this is important when you're graceful and adept, you can help your boss to put things right without upsetting anyone.
Actually if as a leader you have a growth mindset as advocated by the American academic and author Carol Dweck (see this blog) all of this should be pushing at an open door. Taking the time to understand and take on board the views of others informs good decision making. Former General Electric (GE) CEO Jack Welch wrote in his book, Winning:“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.” Or as British-American author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek shrewdly observed “A boss has the title, a leader has the people”.
Andy Stanley wisely advised that “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say”.
While Mao Tse-tung suggests "We should never pretend to know what we don't know, we should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below, and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lowest levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders."
Or put perhaps more succinctly by the American president Woodrow Wilson "The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people."
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