The art of a good leader
There is no good leader anywhere who is not first a good follower. There is no controversy about the fact that it is in following that one can become a leader. If you don’t learn and acquire the art of following, you can’t learn and acquire the art of becoming a good leader. The end point of a genuine follower is to become a good leader. If you can’t bear the cross of following, you will not become a good leader.
When you see a good leader, it shows you someone who is able to yield himself to the pain of following. Leadership is critical that anyone who is ready to gamble in it should first of all make up his mind to look up to someone who he can submit to, to follow the teachings and the instructions of the principles to becoming a good leader.
The end point of a genuine follower is to become a good leader
You can never become a good leader by mere watching a movie on the best leader in the planet. When you watch such movie, it will stir up the hunger to become a good leader. That will be possible through becoming a good follower. The only guarantee in life that one can become a good leader, is when he knows how to follow effectively. If you can’t accommodate the heat of following a leader, you will as well not be able to handle the heat of leading others.
If following a leader does not make sense to you, becoming a genuine leader should not make sense to you. Where you are going, someone has been there before now. Where you aim at going, someone has been there. Who you want to become, someone has been it. The path you are about to treck through, someone has trecked that path before now. You see why becoming a good follower automatically makes you a good leader. The wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verses 9,
“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Where you are going, someone has been there before now
The secret to becoming a good leader is to diligently follow those who are exhibiting good leadership. You can’t say your kind of leadership will be different from the kind of leadership which has been before now. No way! No matter how some leaders mess up things on the course of exercising leadership, never you forget there are still men of integrity who understand the art of good and genuine leadership and they are living it.
Jesus Christ that is our Lord and Master and role model, after He discovered His purpose at the age of twelve, went ahead to submit Himself to the art of following for the next eighteen years. Jesus understood the art of following, why wouldn’t we understand the art of following. If following is that important to Jesus Christ to enable Him display and discharge the right kind of leadership, following diligently should be important to us to learn how to acquire and stir up the right qualities to be able to discharge our leadership effectively.
Jesus Christ is our Lord and Master and role model
3 “The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they recognize his voice.” (John chapter 10 verses 3 to 4 NLT)
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (NLT)
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, (John chapter 10 verses 11,14 NLT)
You can see that our Lord and Master Jesus Christ never proclaimed He is the good shepherd at the beginning of discovery purpose, but after many years of following and undergoing the necessary training, then He made it obvious He is the good shepherd. In other words He is saying ‘I am the good leader.’
Are you a good follower? If you can sincerely say yes to that, that means you are a good leader. A good follower springs to good leader. Just like a bad follower will always end a bad leader. That is the greatest challenges of our society today. Men who does not desire to follow but they desire leadership. Connection is the order of the day. Just like in my country politics who you know sings more than who you follow. As long as you know the man on top, even if you have the worst qualifications on leadership, you are sure of your place since you have connections. This is the cancer eating up the leadership of my country Nigeria and my continent Africa.
Conclusion
You have to realise that any genuine leader today was once a genuine follower, and he who is a genuine follower today will some day become a genuine leader. Do not give up on following that is the art to become a good leader.
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