Who's following you?

Followers have a very clear picture of what they want and need from the influential leaders in their lives: trust, compassion, stability, and hope.  ~Tom Rath & Barry Conchie

Many of the quotes I choose focus on leaders and leadership but few have focused on what it ultimately takes to lead – followers.  What do followers really need from their leaders?  The Gallup organization asked thousands of followers that question and the results were clear: trust, compassion, stability, and hope.    

Rath and Conchie highlight a finding from their research that might be a little unexpected when we think about trust in organizations.  We tend to think of being honest, having integrity, etc. in order to establish trust.  But what they discovered is truly at the core of trust is relationship.  The word relationship implies a connection, rapport, a bond.  If you have a connection and rapport with someone you likely talk about trust very little, you don’t need to.  But if the relationship has never been established or is becoming strained, trust becomes more difficult.  The researchers discovered that successful teams talk about trust very little; while trust dominates the discussion of struggling teams.  Those struggling teams lack relationship.

It’s ironic, but great managers tend to really care about each of their employees.  That willingness to show genuine compassion for people gets lost from manager to leader.  When you’re leading a large number of people, of course it’s difficult, if not next to impossible to show every person, individually, that you care for them.  However, showing compassion can be accomplished even when leading many people.  Compassion can be reflected in how decisions are made and how people are valued.

People will follow someone who can provide a solid foundation or stability.  These leaders are people who can be counted on when circumstances become uncertain.  Followers want to know that your core values aren’t going to waiver in adversity.  Think about what we hear right now in the midst of an election, about how decisions will be made from core values or fundamental beliefs, and who can really bring our entire nation stability.  Where do opposing sides poke holes in their opponent’s arguments?  Their ability to be perceived as being transparent, because nothing creates stability like transparency, and nothing can threaten stability like a lack of transparency.

Followers want it all – they want stability for the present and hope for the future.  Gallup made another interesting discovery about hope.  They learned that leaders tend to spend almost all of their time reacting to the needs of the day instead of initiating for the future.  When leaders are initiating they are creating hope for the future.  Solving problems is certainly a critical part of leadership, but identifying opportunities for the future plays a more important role in creating hope and optimism. 

We’ve probably all heard the statement, “How do you know if you’re leading?  Look behind you and see if anyone is following.”  Building relationships, showing genuine care for people, remaining transparent, and initiating for the future all lead to trust, compassion, stability and hope –what we all want to follow.