I’ve realized that leadership is something that some of us don’t really understand.

I started this on Father’s Day, but didn’t actually start to record it until Wednesday evening. And then an unexpected crash took out my beautiful, 3500 word missive wherein I fully explored the subject and found the cure for the common cold quite by accident. What you see here is all that remains. And yes, I had saved to 3 different locations, but the alien particle ray that caused the computer to crash coincidentally wiped out all of my backups at the same time. Honest! Would I lie to you? What do you mean, “yes”?! (-sigh-) Okay, fine. I didn’t save it before putting the machine to sleep, and it crashed. Or something.

So, I’ve been thinking a little, lately. (Uh oh.) When I say I’ve “realized” something, I’m calling attention to something that I “knew” before, but didn’t really know.

All too often I lead solely from my own experience, strength, and intuition. Yes, that’s selfish, and it denies a basic principle: being a good leader means being a great follower.

Consider fathers, for example. If you’re a dad, you have at least one follower (even though some, or most, of the time it doesn’t seem like it). However, you have a father, too… and he had a father, and so on. You’re just the last leader in a long string, and it should give one pause to think about that fact. Chances are your father applied some principles to everyday leadership that you can as well, whether or not your circumstances are the same. At the same time, your family has unique needs and heartfelt desires that you must learn in order to serve them well.

Let me be clear in saying that being a follower doesn’t imply doing so without regard for responsibility, nor does it imply doing things simply because that’s the example you were taught. A true leader will learn, integrate, and apply the principles gained from others and through experience.

We would be well to recognize our position, whether we are following our fathers, bosses, coaches, commanders, or whomever. May we humbly contribute our unique talents and skills to our endeavors as if we were the least significant of all. The results will be surprising.