"Follow the Leader" is not child's play

Long ago I discovered that in order to be a good leader I needed to be a good follower. After all, is it often when you are following that you have the best opportunity to observe someone else lead. To often I’ve wasted the opportunity to learn when I was following, I haven’t been attentive to what the leader was doing, I wasn’t learning from their successes or mistakes. Observing leaders and learning from then can be hard work.

Sometimes we don't have a choice in who leads us. But often we can choose where we are involved, and when that is the case, we have the opportunity to choose whom we will follow. Below are some of the things I look for in someone I want to follow. This is my list, what’s on your list? Who are you following?

· Follow leaders who value you for who you are as a person AND what you contribute to our shared goals. I want to be part of a team, and I find it easy to follow leaders who use the word "WE" a lot.

· Follow leaders who want to make a difference. Do the use the language of change and vision of the future? I am not interested in just being busy. I want to be part of something bigger and more compelling than what I can do on my own.

· Follow leaders who call for and expect dedication and sacrifice. Jesus has loads of sayings that call for great personal sacrifice. "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." mark 16

· Follow leaders who are principled and whose decisions are consistent with values you embrace. This may sound obvious but history offers SOOOOO many examples of superb and effective leaders who self destructed and hurt many people when they acted inconsistently with their values and the values of those they led. Enough said.

I had a friend who lived in an apartment near the university. Paul's building was filled with international students from India. As you could imagine, the smell of curried cooking filled the air (I love curry). When Paul got into my car, he smelled like curry, and I wasn't the least bit surprised when he made curried chicken over the campfire on a canoe trip.

So, follow someone you want to smell like! Take an inventory of those you follow. They are key influencers, how are they leading? They are shaping your life, what are you becoming? As you take the lead, you will reveal whom you have been following. In ways that my surprise you, you will walk, talk and smell like those you have followed.

The moral of the story

If you carpool with a smoker you will smell like smoke
If your roommate cooks with curry you will smell like curry
If you follow... you will smell like...
If you follow Jesus you will be the aroma of Christ 2 Corinthians 2

[leadership]