Being the Oil

Ever wonder what keeps some teams working like well-oiled machines?  You know what I’m going to say, don’t you?  It’s the leader.  If you’re a great leader, then you are the oil that keeps your team moving almost effortlessly towards whatever objective has been set.

As a  great leader you’ve got insight into the strengths and challenges of each and every team member.  You’ve got a sense of what they can do individually, but more importantly, you’ve got a sense of what they can accomplish together.  Moreover, you’ve got a sense of how they can best come together in order to be the most effective team in service of whatever your objective is.  Once you’ve got them coming together, you are then the oil that works to keep each cog, so to speak, moving smoothly within the frame of other cogs so that all works together.

Leadership is about recognizing how you can grease the wheels of your team most effectively, so you can harness the greatest output of energy from your team.  Every leadership skill you possess — from communication, to conflict resolution, to modeling, to challenging — contributes to your ability to keep the team wheels moving smoothly.

Bottom-line:  while the analogy might not be great, I believe it’s accurate.  As a leader, you are the oil that keeps your team machine working smoothly.

Leader? Follower? Can You Be Both?

I woke up this morning with a question in my mind:  what’s the difference between a leader and a follower?  Which quickly led to another question:  can you be both a leader and a follower? For me, this blog provides a place for me to explore a bit and so, I’m going to see if I can’t sift through my thoughts to arrive at answers to these questions.

What’s the difference between a leader and a follower?  As I hold this question and mull it over, it strikes as pivotal in some respects.  What I know for sure is that being a leader is about so much more than holding a specific title.  You certainly might be a leader by virtue of the fact that you’re a CEO, founder, president, chairperson, etc;.  But the title’s not enough.  Leadership is about vision, it’s about risk-taking, it’s about showing up and standing up and playing the game even when others are dropping out.  Leaders are required to take a stand and invite others to stand alongside.  Leaders have to be willing to get it wrong, in order to get it right (whatever “it” might be).  In other words, a true leader cannot wait for the perfect idea at the perfect moment.  True leaders put themselves out there when things are less than perfect, knowing that as they move forward, step-by-step, perfection will be attained.

Followers, on the other hand, don’t need to hold a vision, they need only subscribe to another person’s vision.  Followers don’t need to risk taking the first step; instead they can follow in the footsteps of another.  Followers can pull out of the game for a bit, take a breath, and then dive back in when they’re ready.  All of this might make it sound like followers have got it far easier than leaders.  And I think that this is a bit of a misnomer.  Why?  Because as a follower, you’ve actually got to exercise a bit of gumption.  You’ve got to use your wits and ascertain whether the vision you’re subscribing to is subscription-worthy.  As a follower, your role is to lend support to your leaders, and so you’ve got to know what support is required of you in every moment.  You’ve got to be able to “read the play” so-to-speak.  The role of follower is no less difficult than the role of leader; it’s just different.

So, can someone be both a leader and a follower?  As I ask this question, a vision of flying geese comes to mind.  What I remember about geese flying in formation is that they absolutely always have a designated leader.  They also, however, have a system whereby, when the leader gets tired, the leader “steps back” and another goose takes the position of leader.  So now, the follower is the leader, and the leader follows for a bit.  In other words, while there is a definite leader and follower role to be held, when it comes right down to it which goose is the leader or follower isn’t nearly as important as all of the geese realizing that they’re on the same team, playing the same game, moving towards the same objective.

Bottom-line:  every team needs a leader, and every team needs followers to support the leader’s objectives.  More importantly, however, every team member — whether they are leader or follower — has to realize that the overriding fact is that they’re a team.  The entity of team trumps the individual roles — at least when the team is all on the same page.  So, leaders, followers, ask yourselves:  are you on the same page?  And if you’re not, how are you going to get there?