Originally posted on July 29, 2020 @ 9:29 am
I’m sitting here between sessions at the 2019 RSA conference looking at all the marketing materials and listening to the vendors touting their “Market Leading” cyber security tool and I’m wondering if they can all be leaders? Especially if all the people who are using their tools are also leaders in their respective fields. Seems like everyone is or wants to be a leader. We should all have goals, Heck, I want to be one of the premier cyber security leaders in cyber risk analysis and mitigation. The problem that many people run into with wanting to be the leader is that they must start with being a good follower and maintain those habits as they move through leadership. Let’s face it, in today’s IT environment, everyone has to be both a follower and a leader.
I read an article recently about the principles of followership and how it relates to everyday leadership. I never really thought about it, and certainly never heard it articulated that way. The basic ideal is that followership is more fundamental to organizational success than developing leaders. Followership is difficult, it requires self-discipline and the willingness to learn from others. Bottom line is without effective followership, a leader can fail to achieve the organizational goals.
There have been several studies that define the following characteristics and behaviors as those commonly sought in effective followers:
- Positive Attitude
- Effective Team Member
- Loyalty to the Leader and Organization
- Volunteerism at Work
- Willingness to Accept Assignments
- Actively Offering Suggestions for Improvement
- Respectfulness in All Aspects of Work
- Supporting of Group Decisions
So why am I thinking about this right now?
Well, to be successful leaders, and to make our leaders successful, we need to be good followers. We need to set the example and display the behaviors above. We need to encourage these behaviors in the people who work for and with us. When we’re hiring, these are the intangibles that we should focus on. I’ve always said when hiring, give me someone with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn and do what’s needed, and we can train or teach them the technical parts of the job. I can send someone to training on the latest tool or technology. There’s no class to fix a negative attitude!