What Makes a Leader: Inspired Followers

Leaders go beyond mere management, according to Empire Today’s VP of Customer Operations

There can only be “leaders” if there are “followers.” Leaders don’t exist if people aren’t willing to follow.

In order to follow someone, you have to be inspired by them. If people follow someone blindly, then they are not leaders, just a manager. A manager is someone who manages tasks at hand and moves these tasks to completion. A leader, on the other hand, looks at the summation of all of the tasks and asks questions like, “Where is this taking us? Is there a better way?”

Leaders fundamentally need to inspire people so that the collective free will of their team generates significant results. Essentially, leaders create the want to follow (i.e., “I want to do well!”) versus a need to follow (i.e., “I don’t want to get fired!”).

A good leader would never expect anyone to follow blindly. They encourage open dialogue and critical thinking because the big-picture result is greater than the who-is-right approach.