Are You Worth Following?

“True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders.” - Robert Townsend

Are you giving to your followers or are you taking from them? As leaders, we are called to give, inspire, and improve the lives of those around us. The key to this is leading by example, having a good leadership model, and understanding why people follow you.

Lead By Example

An overweight dietician will not inspire much hope. We follow those who can get us where we want to be, so as leaders we are always in the limelight.

This holds a lot of responsibility and means that you must always be on as a leader, striving for excellence in every situation. You have to set the example that others will follow.

Why Do People Follow Me?

Leaders have followers, but why do they follow you? Is it because they are forced to because of your rank or power, and they fear going against you? Or is it because you inspire them?

We all have our own unique reason why people follow you, but unless you know why, you cannot understand or improve yourself.

Study your followers and start to understand why the follow you.

Does My Leadership Model Produce Other Leaders?

One of our biggest goals as leaders should be to inspire and nurture the next generation of leaders. Is your leadership model doing this, or is your model simply helping you to survive as a leader without considering the future?

Read and learn about your leadership model, and if you are not happy with it, then change it! You have the opportunity and power to grow as a leader, and this can mean changing or adjusting your leadership model.

How Do You Stay Mentally Strong?

If you focus on excellence all the time, you’ll forget about yourself! This is especially true in our younger generations where they are affected more by negativity on social media.

The best way to deal with negative comments is to reframe them. Let’s say you gave a talk, and someone left a bad review. Ask yourself if you gave the best talk today. If you answered yes, then you know the talk may have not suited the reviewer which is out of your control.

Practice this on the small things and overtime you can build resilience.