Leding the followers

There are plenty of options for someone in a position of leadership. Some involve being a crutch. Others involve showing how to act without a crutch. And still more dimensions of the process call for nurturing a desire to be angry at the crutch, to want to break it. You simply cannot be in a position of leadership without acting as one in certain ways and at certain times.

The question is how to enable others to walk without one... or at least, to walk with one without being a meager follower. To lead is not to allow followers to tag along, it’s to take advantage of their inclination to follow in order to show them how to walk on their own, to enable or open their eyes to the choice they have to either walk with you or to walk without you.

Following is just something that’s tolerated in the interim, and it only goes away when no one new is interested in whatever cause, place, organization, or site being led. Dealing with it is a part of the price one pays in being aware of one’s own power and the power of others.