Leaders need followers. It’s not a brilliant revelation. But how much thought have you given to the question of how leaders cultivate followers?
We expect follower-ship to happen naturally if leaders present a compelling vision, inspire people, act with integrity – the list goes on. But it takes more than that.
How Leaders Cultivate Followers
When leaders cultivate followers, they do so by building and maintaining relationships. Ipso facto, relationship building is part of your job. It’s not something you do after your real work is done. Relationship building IS your real work and it requires INtention and Attention. You have to devote attention and energy to those relationships.
Each and every interaction is an opportunity to develop relationships.
The Additional Upside of Cultivating Followers
As a leader you will make mistakes, if you haven’t already. Some of your ideas will flop. You won’t always communicate clearly. Sometimes you’ll fail to communicate enough, or at all. Things will simply go wrong at times. When you cultivate followers, they’ll see you through mis-steps and difficult times. Why? Because you showed you care about them as people, beyond their roles as employees. And now they care about you, beyond your role as leader.
The Leader Who Cared
I once worked with a leader who cared and cultivated follwers as a result. Years later, and after he retired, Charlie and I still maintain a relationship, as do many people who worked for and with him.
I heard about Charlie before we met. People who worked at all levels of his organization spoke of him as THE GUY to work for in their industry. How can someone be THE GUY? So I asked, “What does that mean?” They answered,
“Everyone wants to work for Charlie.”
The moment Charlie and I met, I got it. When you’re in Charlie’s presence, he is focused completely on you. He’s listening in a way that conveys warmth and caring. He’s a busy executive with world wide responsibilities in a highly competitive fast-paced industry. He might have flown in from the far east early that same day, or maybe he’s leaving for Europe in a few hours. He could be dealing with an urgent customer issue, or preparing a presentation for Wall Street, but you are the only one who matters at the moment. He doesn’t rush the conversation. To the contrary, it seems he has all the time in the world for you. If you send Charlie an email you get a response. Every. Single. Time. Charlie cares about you and you know it. THAT is why people in his organization say “I’d run into a burning building for him.”
Not everyone shows they care in the same way as Charlie. But if you care, show it during your day job, as you’re doing your day job, because it’s part of your day job. And if you don’t care, reflect on this. Each of us is on a journey. Your journey, mine, and every other person’s include joys and struggles, happiness and disappointment, love and heartbreak. In this way, we are all more alike than not. The phone call you need to make, the urgent customer issue you need to resolve, can wait. Be with the person in front of you, completely.