There’s a popular piece on YouTube called “Dancing Shirtless Guy” that has also become a lesson about leadership. Actually, in the end, the narrator makes the assertion that leadership happens when the “First Follower” joins the leader, thereby validating what the leader is doing. If it weren’t for the First Follower, who then inspires other Followers, the identified Leader would be, in this case, just a shirtless guy dancing by himself.

Food for Thought ~

I would say it takes two parts and a proviso to make this equation. A leader has to be willing to be the lone voice/dancer/initiator, to be different, to march to a different drummer. Were it not for the leader’s willingness to take a risk and step out from the crowd, there would be no one for the First Follower to emulate. A First Follower is then, by definition, dependent on there being an identifiable Leader. Furthermore, the proviso is that the Leader must be doing something that others care about and admire. Otherwise, indeed, he would be just a shirtless guy dancing by himself.

Question of the day ~

What’s your take on the relationship between leadership and followership?

I am particularly fond of my current column in the North Bay Business Journal because it’s based on a truly brilliant definition of leadership by John Quincy Adams, our country’s sixth president. In nineteen words, he sums up the essence of leadership! Click here to read his definition, and the article.