If You Love Your Followers…

Posted by parkejladd on Nov 4, 2009 in Featured {Article} | 3 comments

…you’d better tell them.

If those who follow you, look-up to you, respect you, work for you, listen to you, sacrifice for you, or dedicate their time to you, think they are unimportant–not a crucial part of the movement–than, ultimately, they will dedicate their efforts, energy and resources to another.

There are three types of leaders:

1. Leaders who forget about or choose to completely ignore their followers, taking them for granted.
2. Leaders who acknowledge their followers but never instill or feed any positive value back into their work.
3. Leaders who recognize the importance of those followers who want to partake in valuable work and consistently reassure them that they are; all while challenging them with truly worthwhile opportunities to commit to throughout.

If people think they are unimportant, regardless of how important they may actually be, their dedication toward you will reflect that mindset. Those who think they’re unimportant will work and follow (at least until they leave) as though they genuinely are.

Great leaders are extremely proficient at connecting value with the work, care and commitment of their followers. They understand what it takes to integrate people into a vision, and they’re adept at assigning appropriate responsibilities to those passionate about making that vision a reality. They have a knack for intrinsically motivating the seemingly unimportant to achieve things which they never before believed possible. They know how to impart importance.

If your work force or small group or spouse or teammates or co-workers think they’re unimportant, you’ve already lost them. Don’t let that happen. Whether you lead 1 person or 1 million, impart and associate value with who they are and what they do. If you can identify your most supportive followers, those highly invested in the process, movement, job, or service you’re passionately attempting, than together you can help a lot of people.