Leadership is among today’s most popular business topics.  But as John Maxwell reminds us, “The leader who thinks he leads and has no one following, is only taking a walk.”  Leaders should maximize the value of the team, and followers should understand what it takes to be a good follower, particularly during these challenging economic times.

Carolyn D. Townes wrote a terrific post called Good Followers Make Great Leaders. In it, she quotes the writings of Dr. Adalat Khan who identifies the qualities followers should have to be of greatest assistance to the success of leaders. They include:

Understand, Support, and Work for the Leader’s Vision
Followers should understand and accurately comprehend their leader’s vision. They must also commit themselves to support that vision. One difficulty which could crop in this regard is the possibility of conflict between the followers and a leader’s vision. To plug this gap, followers should align their vision with that of their leader’s.

Help the Leader to Succeed
Followers can either be like fuel providing energy or roadblocks creating hurdles for the efforts of a leader. Good followers however help the leader to succeed and do whatever it takes to achieve success. Having a winner’s mentality and deriving pleasure form the leader’s success is a quality to be possessed by them.

Provide Open, Honest and Accurate Information
Most of the leaders base their decisions on the information provided to them by their followers. If these information are accurate and honest it will lead to good decision. Conversely, inaccurate and dishonest information will lead to terrible decisions.

A Positive and Can Do Attitude
The phrase ‘recruit for attitude and train for skills’ is highly relevant for all followers. Sometimes when faced with difficulties even great leaders lose hope – during which times the followers could help them by reminding and reassuring them that they could succeed. It is a fact that all human being are capable of doing anything but only those succeed who possess the can do attitude.

Learning Attitude
Learning, the ability to understand one’s limitations, the courage to unlearn negative ideas and beliefs and the desire to acquire new knowledge, skills, and attitude is yet another quality necessary for good followers. To keep pace with the fast changing world of today people need to update themselves with new knowledge.

So if you’re a leader, challenge your followers, and as a follower, ask yourself if you’re doing everything you can to support your leader and the vision for the organization.   The organization deserves nothing less from both.

Next week, I’ll write about how best to offer honest counsel to your leadership, even when that counsel may be contrary to the leader’s point of view.  In the meantime, are you a good follower?  And as a leader, how are you getting the best out of your team?