What You Say Is What You Get®--The Power of Followers: "Without a worthy follower, a worthy dream vanishes."

Welcome to the What You Say Is What You Get(R) Positive Leadership Blog! 

From Dr. Linne for Positive Leaders--September 2016

The Power of Followers: "Without a worthy follower, a worthy dream vanishes." Charles Edwards.

What are the five qualities every leader must have in their followers/employees? And why?
How do your followers/employees rate?

Many client executives have anguished over employees who were just not getting the job done,  with products late to market, teams not working well, upsets and conflicts derailing progress, or just poor communication causing poor results and many needless weekends at work.

Many of my consulting projects have focused on this issue.  How about you?

* How happy are you with your employees? 
* Are they working positively, quickly and accurately, with great teamwork, responding well and quickly to changes??
* How can you hire better employees, who are dedicated to the mission of your firm?

Thinking the the power of employees to make or break your business,

* What makes a great follower?
* What are the qualities you want in those you hire?
* What are the five qualities every leader must have in their followers/employees?

Using dance as a metaphor for leading and following, I examined the parallels to leading and folowing in business.

I often get positive feedback on how well I follow, and the leaders I dance with say I make fast intricate complex moves so easy and fun for them.

Thinking about the power of great followers in business, I started analyzing what makes a good follower, a follower that leaders want to lead in dance or in business?

Here are the results of my analysis of client comments and experiences and feedback on my dancing.

1.  Great followers work at it....they are committed and intentionally pitch in and give it their all.  They don't just sit back and wait for the leader to do all the work. 

Application:  In a hiring interview, ask yourself is your job candidate interactive, or just passively answering your questions?

2.  They bring positive energy to each meeting or dance.

Application:  Great followers smile, are enthusiastic, come ready to be good and do good.
In dance, they smile and bring good energy, adding to the dance, not being passive and dragging down the energy.

How high is your Positive Quotient®, or your PQ?

3.  They pay close attention with total focus.  They are totally present in the moment.

Application:  I am watching every thing the leaders do and everything I am doing in response...their arms, their core, their leg and foot position, their speed of direction change, their lead hands and fingers, their facial expression, constantly looking for clues
about what they are doing so I can respond collaboratively and FAST.

In business, notice who is present, attentive, focused on the task, engaged, asking questions.

4.  They keep up to speed on the external environment to understand the context of the business.

Application:  Great followers keep up with their industry and company events and news and the macro-economic environment.
I do this for clients and when dancing keep a very close ear to the music, bass and top lines, moods, speed, rhythm breaks, syncopations, and lyricsso I can "dance the music" with each partner.
 
5.  They invest in their competence and skills as a top priority, always learning, growing, and getting better at what they do, valuing their own talent development, so they are good at what they do.

Application:  Leaders invest in employee development in high-impact ways, bringing in top experts with real-time applications, not just off the shelf cookie cutter basic courses, and great followers eagerly attend and apply what they learn. When I work with consulting clients, my training programs always include
real-time customized application to save clients time and money and improve results.

There is an entire literature on the Learning Organization, showing better results from better learning.

And how about you?

“He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”  Aristotle

How good a follower are you?  Do you model good follower behavior as well as good leadership behavior for your employees? 
If I interviewed them, how would they rate you as a follower?

Remember, "Without a worthy follower, a worthy dream vanishes." Charles Edwards.
Make sure you have  worthy followers to support your worthy dreams!

I appreciate all you do to make the world a better place!

Peace and prosperity,
Dr. Linne

"Build on Your Best" Giving you the power to predict, profit, & protect
Dr. Linne Bourget M.A. M.B.A. Ph. D www.oldpowernewpower.com www.whatyousayiswhatyouget.com
 Pioneer, strengths-based leadership, Master Intuition System
 Founder/CEO 480-767-1717 Institute for Transformation Leaders& Consultants
Strategist, Consultant, Speaker,
Author of From Old Power to New Power – Which Leaders Will Survive?
Co-author with Mark Victor Hansen, Deepak Chopra, Amazon #1Bestseller, Wake Up, Live the Life You Love - Finding Personal Freedom
Author, What You Say Is What You Get® Series: The Secret Language of Great Business Results
Dr. Linne's Leadership Guides Series Positive Quotient ® PQ Questionnaire Appreciative Quotient ® AQ Questionnaire,
Secrets of Powerful Appreciation for Parents and Children, 2 CD Audio by "Dr. Appreciation" Appreciation: The Secret Key to Magical Marriage!! Power Course on Intuition for Business Leaders! "The greatest challenge is taking complete responsibility for your own greatness." Dr. Linne Copyright 2005-2016. All Rights Reserved. Dr. Linne Bourget, M.A., M.B.A., Ph.D.