Leader-Follower Agility Is Crucial

by Judy Ryan

Innovation is key. Only those who have the agility to change with the market and innovate quickly will survive.
-Robert Kiyosaki

Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react and reinvent.
-Bill Gates

Change is happening much faster, and with that speed of change come complexity and the need for agile technologies as well as agile human behavior. But what is agile human behavior, and how do we create it?

Agile human behavior is when individuals and groups are confident; have healthy self-esteem; are emotionally and socially intelligent; and, most important, don’t hold back because of title or tenure. They jump in without hesitation to lead or follow as needs dictate.

This agility is an incredible thing to behold, and it does not happen without going out of your way to create it. Here are some harmful assumptions that impede it.

There is a finite pool of fully engaged, evolving people.

Most business owners believe this and that they must seek out and find this minority of high-performing achievers. I assert that this assumption is inaccurate. What’s true is that we have a finite number of people who can function well despite largely dysfunctional human systems involving power-over, dangling carrots, judging and spoiling. There is a copious amount of untapped talent and innovation already inside most organizations.

People are to blame, not systems.

If we could school ourselves to ask, “What system, if put in place, would eliminate or fix this problem, and how do we build and implement it?,” we would rapidly grow and improve. Instead we ask, “Who caused this, and why is this happening?” Both questions lead to finger pointing, pointless analysis and wasted time.

Not everyone is a leader.

This is one of the biggest mistakes of all. We tend to quickly pigeonhole people as “leaders” or “followers” even in childhood, and then most adopt and buy in to this assumption, often without question. Typically, companies identify “leaders” and then invest time, money and training in them. What they don’t do is make sure these same “leaders” have equally well-developed “follower” skills, which are essential within cross-functional and trans-functional, agile teamwork. In addition, those deemed to be “followers” are not taught how to be “leaders” or put into situations so that they can learn to be and experience themselves as “leaders.”

Developing leader and follower skills in all is just too hard and time-consuming.

When I was raising my five children, we had weekly family meetings. Once we demonstrated such a meeting to a group of adults, and our 5-year-old led it. She implemented a process, held the authority of the group, and brainstormed and problem-solved with the rest of us. Those in the room were impressed with her because they had underestimated leadership capability in 5-year-olds. What was equally impressive (but not as quickly noticed) was that as a predominantly confident, dominant “leader” mother, it was very challenging for me to learn to be an effective “follower” who encouraged others leading, offered support and refused to bulldog in and take over. We practiced many such leader-follower rotational activities so that our entire family could learn this well-rounded interpersonal agility and gain skills and experiences invaluable in life and work.

My work with clients proves that when this is also done through a healthy workplace culture system and regular mentoring is provided on interpersonal and self-management skills, people become incredibly effective, high-performing and inclusive. Then they become unstoppable, co-creating and accomplishing amazing outcomes alone and together. If you are ready to create such a healthy workplace culture system, call me today.

Judy Ryan (judy@LifeworkSystems.com), human systems specialist, is owner of LifeWork Systems. Join her in her mission to create a world in which all people love their lives. She can also be reached at 314-239-4727.