“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”
Alexander The Great
The quote above was spoken by one of the most well-known warriors and commanders the world has ever seen. He recognized a leader’s effectiveness and believed the correct leader could move even a passive audience. I want to move past that notion and challenge the concept and identity of the word “leader.”
Which is more critical, followership or leadership?
We’ve tried to answer this question throughout the years as a society. However, we’re asking the wrong question. We’ve improperly defined the word “leader.” When someone says leader, we think of terms like authority, boss, in charge, decision-maker, and commander. I want to challenge those terms and find the answer to this weighted question.
In his book, How To Lead When You’re Not In Charge, Clay Scroggins alludes that leadership is essentially a trait to be applied to followership or leadership (my words, not his). In his younger years, Scroggins reflects, saying, “When I had authority, I could lead. If I had no authority, I was waiting my turn.” The lie we believe is that to lead well, we must be in positional authority, and thus, we must wait to lead.
Outstanding leadership (the trait) is the ability to leverage influence instead of authority to get your sheep where they need to go. Any airman about to go into the Air Force or already in will have likely seen leaders who lead by authority and lead by influence. Scroggins nails my point by saying, “Great leaders leverage influence and relationships over title and position.”
Being a follower who knows how to use the leadership trait is just as important as being a leader who knows how to serve. There are two types of airmen, those who naturally lead and those who naturally follow. Those who naturally lead will likely find it difficult to follow and be frustrated when they can’t drive change from the positional top. However, they can still apply leadership while being a follower by leveraging influence to impact their team for the better.
While Clay’s book is one of my favorites, he is not the only one who emphasizes using influence to move your team along. One of my favorite authors, Simon Sinek, wrote Start With Why. I think Sinek sums up my ideas best when he says the following:
“Leading is not the same as being the leader. Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune or navigating internal politics. Leading, however, means that others willingly follow you—not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to.”
As I enter the Air Force, I will see a lot of outstanding leadership and a lot of poor leadership. Regardless of what type of leadership we fall under, we can lead well by using influence instead of authority and leading from the bottom up. The question shouldn’t be which is more important, being a leader or a follower. The question should be, how can we learn to lead from the position of a follower? We will become great leaders at the top once we learn how to lead from the bottom.
credits:
Clay Scroggins (2017). “How To Lead When You’re Not In Charge,” Unknown, Zondervan
Simon Sinek (2009). “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action,” p.65, Penguin