Guest Blog by Corry Robertson
There is an essential shift occurring not only in smart leadership but also in smart follower-ship. As Lianne highlighted in the her blog “The Dalai Lama is Following my Tweets, Obama makes Biance want to be smarter and the fact that The Dalia Lama is following her on Twitter makes her feel responsible to “tweet” smarter. The President and the Pop Star, the Spiritual Icon and the Business Woman, united more then divided. Connected. I find myself lingering on the word ‘connected’ as I consider its depth of meaning.
What is this indicative of? We are observing evidence of the shift as we awaken to the power of follower-ship. To me this means that responsibility for everything about our lives lies within. We can no longer look outwards to blame anything on anyone, ever again.
Follower-ship and leadership are merging. This makes follower-ship powerful because we want to be worthy of the ideals that our leaders communicate so charismatically.
In the present context of the shift, wanting to be worthy of the ideals communicated by our leaders makes us think before we speak, act, purchase and consume. We must be conscious of whom we follow, how we follow and why we follow. The power lies within us, not outside of us. Knowing this fact is more essential now than ever before.
The paradox that is created through social media is that the leader has the unavoidable evidence that the following is engaged and it forces him to continue to earn the esteem of those whom are emulating him. He fuels us and we fuel him. The bar is raised as science and technology unite the leadership and follower-ship.
Leadership theorists are making the case for ‘servant leadership’ and the concept of ‘leading from behind’. This evolution is the dawn of the collaboration of humanity, in service of humanity. The guiding principal is truly, that the more you give, the more you gain.
The beacon of light shining from the dark night of past historical events is that emotional intelligence, mental fortitude and traditional intellect are uniting to form a family of leadership values that will serve humanity as a whole. Those in tune with this new level of complex intelligence will coach us away from “I must have more” and towards “There is always enough for every one to have as much as he needs”. ( Note the work ‘need’ is loaded and beyond the scope of this post.)
As we continue leading through the shift it will be consistently confirmed that the separation between leader and follower is minuscule, however the result of the awareness of such; quantum.
I am reminded of the words of Marianne Williamson, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small does not serve the world….”.
These words should be the credo of each and every parent, leader, teacher, coach and prophet on the planet today. Imagine a world where children where taught to let their light shine.
Corry Robertson is an Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant. As an International Coaching Federation (ICF) certified business coach, Corry takes a holistic approach to success. While working with clients to create a unique blueprint for the achievement of extraordinary business results, she will support them in maintaining their overall wellbeing. The outcome is success in business and triumph in life. Learn more about Corry
[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
[…] articles and communicate them through social media. This morning, I posted on Twitter an article on Smart Follow-ship that a good friend, Corry Robertson, and talented business coach had written for my site. Shortly […]