To Be a Good Leader...We Need to Keep Our Followers...well following

The secret recipe to being a good leader includes the basics, like strength of character, ability to make decisions quickly and soundly, yadaa yadaa...but is there a secret ingredient that leaders often overlook? To be a good leader, we need followers...simply put...that's it. But what keeps followers...following? Let's focus on one type of leader. The "command" leader. We all know them. They are task masters and yield little trust in their teams, to the point of needing to constantly work over their shoulders.

In this day and age, with our highly skilled workforce, leaders commanding workers to do minute tasks, rather then empowering them to manage their own work, is not conducive to keeping followers. Sure, workers will follow for a while, but without loyalty, the minute the next breadcrumb is headed behind another leader...off the worker goes. So, about loyalty. How do good leaders keep followers loyal and following? Well, it may be simpler than we think.

What did Maslow say about our needs hierarchy? Food & shelter, safety, love and belonging, self esteem, and self actualization. Well...we may have it. All jobs provide provisions (aka paycheques) for food and shelter. Thanks to the taxes deducted from our paycheques, our homes and workplaces are physically safe. As well, with most workplaces, a few or many friendly co-workers provide bonds of love and belonging...but what about self esteem?

With commanding leaders, worker self esteem is traditionally low, as they are typically told what to do and how to do it, constantly. Without allowing employees the opportunity to grow and contribute to the work, leaders are not enabling them to self-actualize at work. Plus, without giving followers the opportunity to direct their own tasks to meeting goals (and to learn from their own mistakes), leaders are stymieing worker self-esteem and provide zilch toward their ability to self-actualize. So, what happens to those workers? These followers do the only thing they can to try to gain self-esteem and thus reach self-actualization. They choose to leave and to not follow their leaders, and our commanding leaders end up leading...no one. What's the good in that?