The most important element of your leadership …

So many of today’s leaders place such an emphasis on “leadership” that they actually devalue followership.

That outcome was captured in a story recounted by Dr.’s Les and Leslie Parrott in “The Complete Guide to Marriage Mentoring”:

I once read the story of a young woman who wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application that asked, “Are you a leader?” Being both honest and conscientious, she wrote, “No,” and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: “Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower.”

What so many “leaders” seem to overlooking is this:

The quality of your leadership will never surpass the quality of your followership.

The Parrott’s concluded their story with this comment:

There are times for all of us to lead in various roles and ways in our lives, but sometimes we become so focused on leadership that we forget our first responsibility is to be followers of Jesus Christ. The first command that He gave to His disciples was to follow Him, and the same is true for us. There is no way to be a successful, victorious Christian without first walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

For a deeper exploration about the need for leaders to first focus on their followership, check out an outstanding book by Leonard Sweet titled, “I Am A Follower” (you can find my review and high recommendation of the book here).

Scotty