The Importance of the First Follower

There is no such thing as a leader who does not have any followers. According to dictionary.com, a leader is " ... a person who guides or directs a group". Even the most-brilliant new idea, even the smartest person to have ever lived, even a self-important narcissist ... none of these will be leaders until they have followers.

I'm not the biggest fan of the term "follower", because I think it may evoke an impression of blind faith or unquestioning obedience. In this case, I'm only distinguishing leader from follower in the formal sense; the leader guides the group, the group is made up of followers. Each follower may be a leader of one or more other groups, so in this case follower is not in any way disdainful. Frankly, we all follow, it's our nature.

All leaders need followers. And in actuality, it's the first followers who - in essence - lead the rest of the followers to follow. Hmm, that sounded rather tautological.  Allow me to illustrate by an example.

My favorite - if somewhat silly - interpretation of this is the widely-shared YouTube video titled "First Follower: Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy". Have a look:

Forgiving the poor-quality video and the goofiness of the visual presentation, there is so much great stuff in this short video, I'm not sure where to begin. But (of course) I'll try. Here are aspects of the video and it's narration that really resonate with me in my ongoing pursuit of learning how to lead.

• Want to lead? Be easy to follow. Be accessible, share your vision, invite participation. 
• When a First Follower decides to follow, the leader succeeds by immediately embracing him or her as an equal. It's so important for the leader not to make it all about him or herself. Remember: without followers, you are not and cannot be a leader.
• A First Follower is TRANSFORMATIVE. He or she changes a "lone nut" into a leader, by choosing to follow. Emphasis on the choosing part - the First Follower has chosen to take the risk of believing in the leader. This concept is widely under-appreciated. 
• The First Follower is the LEADER of the next set of followers! "New followers emulate the follower, not the leader" - in other words, as leaders we can rant until we're blue in the face AND try like crazy to lead by example, but guess who everyone is ACTUALLY watching to see HOW to follow? It's the early followers, of course. 
• It takes a lot of courage to be the First Follower, perhaps more courage than to be the innovative leader. Innovative leaders already believe in their idea or project or direction; First Followers have to buy in BEFORE ANYONE ELSE HAS DONE SO. That's taking a huge risk, because if the First Follower is wrong, he or she will be ridiculed for making a bad choice.

As leaders, it is incumbent upon us to invite, encourage, recognize and show deep gratitude for our First Followers, and the first circle of additional followers that he or she might bring in. The temptation, of course, is to believe that it's all about us, we drive the team, right? In many ways, that's a false and ego-centric conceit. Imagine giving your big strategic pitch to a room with nobody in it!

Your First Followers are actually your true leaders.

Thank you to anyone who has taken the risk of embracing one or more of my crazy schemes. Without you, I'd be nothing important and certainly not a leader.