Leadership

Being a follower is just as important as being a leader. Although leaders are usually more popular, a lot of people look down on finding a team of subordinates with good followership skills. People underestimate the power of being followers who can push their leaders to great heights, and settle for mere yes-mans and boss pleasers. Being a good follower takes more than just mindlessly following the leader. Effective followers not only make the team more valuable, they also make a good support system. The question is, how to distinguish the good followers from the bad? These are the questions to ask to determine whether people have good or bad followership skills. Question 1: How do you contribute to the team? Contrary to popular belief, good followers do not just go with the low. The...

If a day comes when your superior asks you this question out of the blue, do not answer immediately. It’s a trick question. If you answer that he or she is a boss, there is a negative image to the label, but if you answer the latter, you might seem too eager to please. However, if you are someone who is used to working directly under someone in an organization, you are bound to notice the difference between these two terms. Here is a checklist for you to see if your superior is a boss or a leader. 1.  How the superior pushes the employees Bosses in general would choose to push or drive employees, hence, the term ‘slave-driver’, in this regard whereas leaders would rather coach their employees. Bosses would rely a lot on their authority, using their seniority as much as they can to mak...