Are You A Leader Or A Follower?

It’s a question that is often asked with the implication that there is only one real answer. Either you are a leader, or you are worthless, fit only to be shepherded by the strong, intelligent, and brave.

 

Before we continue, it is important that you know that this is not the case. Leaders are important, but so are followers. After all, where would leaders be without followers? The world needs leaders, but it also needs followers. It’s also okay to start a follower with the aim of becoming a leader, or to be a leader today and a follower tomorrow.

 

Whatever the case, it’s probably easier to break the question up into questions that address the qualities of leadership. This article won’t tell you whether you are a leader or a follower, but it will help you to answer the question reliably for yourself.

 

Are You Confident With The Situation?

 

Confidence is important to leadership, both confidence in yourself to lead and confidence in yourself to handle the situation. If you aren’t sure that you can lead or aren’t familiar with the type of situation that you are faced with, you probably aren’t the best person to lead in that situation. 

 

Passing up a leadership position in this situation will protect you from making a critical error in a leadership position but it will also protect the team by allowing a better prepared person to step forward, increasing the team’s chances of success.

 

You also should have confidence in your team. Without a good team, the project will likely fail. If you don’t see much chance of success, do you want to be a leader or a follower when the ship goes down? Sometimes the decision to be a leader or a follower is based more on the situation than it is on your ability.

 

How Do You Handle Pressure?

 

When faced with great responsibility, some people rise to the occasion and others collapse under the pressure. Knowing which one you are can help you decide not whether you are right for the position but whether the position is right for you.

 

It is also important to consider what kind of position you are looking at. Some leadership positions mean that you are truly at the top of the heap, while other leadership positions mean that you are in charge of a team but are also answering directly to someone else. The latter kind is often more stressful.