The LeaderFollower Relationship Regent （摄政的LeaderFollower关系）.pdf

R E G E N T U N I V E R S I T Y The Leader-Follower Relationship: Practitioner Observations Leadership Advance Online- Issue VI Winter 2006 by Don Grayson Ryan Speckhart “If you’re not the lead dog the scenery never changes.” So read the caption of a dog sled poster hanging on the wall of an executive’s office in 1981. I saw this poster early on in my career as a consulting psychologist. I did not enjoy working with this executive, for I found him arrogant and too absorbed with himself, while insensitive to others. The executive made business decisions based upon personal benefits, even if it harmed other people or the company. The executive thought his title of leader entitled him to do as he pleased and, in his mind, he was very much the lead dog. As my colleague and I discussed this, we determined that If this executive were our leader, we would want him to be the lead dog, so we could watch him like a hawk. In reality, very few of us are the lead dog, and for each time we are in the lead, there are several more times we play the role of follower. Larger than life leaders too often define leadership as the Lee Iacocas, Jack Welchs, Warren Buffets, Bill Gates, and Rudy Giulianis. These individuals are the exception, and very few of us possess the qualities these leaders exhibit. Even if we did, still fewer of us find ourselves in a situation where we can exercise those qualities. Yet, the “experts” lead us to believe that we should strive to be like these great leaders. While striving is admirable, reality can get lost. In our society, leaders are glorified and followers are denigrated with unfortunate counterproductive results. During our years as consulting psychology practitioners, we have made five distinct observations concerning the leader-follower relationship.