The Power of the First Follower

Check out this fantastic 3 minute TED video.  Derek Sivers provides a brilliant brief conceptual analysis, touching on points including:

1. Leaders are over-rated, if someone does not follow, they are just lone nuts.

2. The first follower is the one who creates a leader.

3. The leader had the wisdom to treat the first follower as an equal, which encouraged him to join and stay.

4.  The people who come after everyone's doing it are interesting, as they rush to get there soon enough when it is still cool but safe because a lot of people are doing it.

5. At some point, it may spread so far that people will risk ridicule for not joining.

6. Leaders are over-rated, early -- especially first followers -- followers provide an underrated form of leadership.

I would add, as a small addition, that another way to think about the leader here is he succeeded because he was sensitive to what would motivate the first follower and the other early followers. 

This is a case of influence by someone without authority.  But just think if you had authority and also applied these principles. That is what great leaders -- and first followers -- do, it seems. 

P.S. A big thanks to Scott for sending this my way.

Comments

[twitter.com/pmstudent]

I came across this the other day as well, I love TED and watch the presentations all the time.

http://pmstudent.com/how-to-get-your-project-teams-to-dance-like-maniacs/

This short presentation demonstrated many of the values I hold dear as a project leader/facilitator. To me, one of the most important lessons is that leadership happens everywhere, especially in that core group (not individual) that get the ball rolling.

-Josh
http://learn.pmStudent.com

[Calvin]

In many cases the first mover finds his by serendipity. The second mover has to actually assess and decide to follow, and success is far from a sure thing.

[Bruce Post]

Having known many college admissions officers, I have often heard the lament: "All these parents keep telling me how their child is a good leader; just once I would like to hear someone say that their kid is a good follower."

Of course, even good following does not necessarily mean that the course being followed is effective, admirable or even moral. My favorite example of the leader/follower dynamic is the perpetually Lost Patrol in the comic strip Crock. Why, oh why, does that crew continue to follow the leader who got them lost in the first place?

Bob, here is a book on leadership for you to consider: "A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix" by the late Edwin Friedman. It certainly is an unorthodox treatment of the subject of leadership but it is immensely more creative and provocative than most of the stuff churned out about "successful" leaders.

[Ali Ahmadian]

I just love this TED lecture. Derek Sivers managed to fit so much valuable content in a 3 minute lecture. I read a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson long time ago that read “To be great is to be misunderstood.” After watching this lecture, I think to be great (successful) is to be misunderstood but know a nut who believes in you!
Thanks for the blog post Bob.