in life as followers - children who followed the leadership of our parents.
As young children, our first following instincts were directed exclusively
toward them. We wanted to always be at our parent’s side, or follow close
behind them – gripping their hand, or holding to their leg for security!
As we grew, we ventured further and further from our parent’s side.
The more we individuated, the more we gradually divided our following
between our parents and our older brothers or sisters. When we became
teenagers, we preferred to follow our friends. But over the years as we
grew and matured, some of us found that we preferred the challenge of
leading – while others of us liked the security of following others.
However, the game of “Follow the Leader” does not end with childhood. It
is a lifelong activity. Most all of us are followers by nature. If we had a
bad leadership experience as a child, we will be insecure and timid about
accepting a leadership position as adults. If we had a bad experience
following someone as a child or teenager, we will have a problem trusting
leaders and other authority figures in our adult life.
To be a good leader or a good follower – and life is a balance of both –
we need to understand both leadership and followership. Neither can be
understood apart from the other. Leadership is meaningless without
followers; and following necessitates leaders. In this study we are going
to primarily focus on leadership. We will study the subject of following
secondarily within the context of leadership. Let’s continue the game of
“Follow the Leader” as we go through this study...
WORLD LEADERSHIP CRISIS
Simply put, our world today is facing a great crisis of leadership! Whether
on a local, regional, national or international scale, people are literally
dying for a lack of good leadership! Whether in America, Asia, Africa,
Australia, or Antarctica, the problem is always the same – leadership! Even
though our world faces many economic, educational, environmental, and
ethnic problems – the real problem is one of leadership. These many socio-
economic-political problems are just the fruit of the problem. The
real root of the problem is one of leadership – either poor leadership...
prideful leadership...passive leadership...or perverted leadership. A good
example of this is a statement by an African diplomat. In the midst of
a refugee crisis and famine brought on by tribal warfare, he lamented:
“Africa is starving for leadership more than she is starving for food!”