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Overview |
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You can make things better now! A formal leader sets direction and rallies people to the cause but doesn’t and can’t do everything. They depend on other people to do the bulk of the work, people who enable themselves by thinking, “I can take action and I can take it immediately.” These people remove excuses and make things happen by practicing yes-you yes-now leadership. When your team, family, or work group are trying to achieve something, only one person has formal leadership at any given moment. Everyone else follows. The effective followers understand their roles and use them with a sense of immediacy to help their team reach their goals. In fact, most of us don’t have formal leadership titles most of the time. As you’ll find throughout the chapters of this book, we may flash into a leadership role and then resume our follower role. You’ll see this as you watch a group in action. The coach or boss may say something, then another team member will lead the next step. The dynamics are never-ending and the power is immense through yes-you yes-now leadership, no matter what formal role you hold. When I first thought about this I wondered why some people were good followers and some were not. I searched for books or seminars on the topic of following and found very little. Most of the references were about leadership, what a leader should do to lead followers. What I wanted was some information on how a follower can help his or her leader and teammates make progress towards their goals. There really wasn’t much. I began researching the topic of followers and found a lot on religious and cult followers, a smattering on political followers, and a little bit on formal follower roles. I wanted something readable, accessible, and positive. I started keeping track of behaviors I had observed or read about which either helped or hindered a team’s progress. These turned into the points made at the beginning of each chapter, which are illustrated by colorful historical events as well as stories from everyday life. Formal leaders get all the attention. Turning yourself into one is overly emphasized by authors, the media, and the public. But followers are the ones who really make the world go round by practicing yes-you yes-now leadership. Just as there are bad leaders and good leaders, there are bad followers and good followers. Bad leaders and bad followers are often focused on themselves. In their quest for power, they have more tactics than the rest of us have. Why? Because they use tactics most people reject, such as lying and cheating. Yes-you yes-now leadership helps anyone wanting to effectively reach team goals – including good leaders and good followers. These people have the skills to achieve those goals by working with honesty, integrity, and decency. With many of us in a follower role much of the time, learning to use yes-you yes-now leadership is critical to making your team succeed and to attaining that success for everyone. The stories that in this book will help teach these skills. |
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You’re in good company.
Within the first month, customers at a major bookseller’s website bought with: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey Good to Great by Jim Collins |
