Published By: Orna Ghosh

How are followers different from leaders?

In most cases, candidates focus on highlighting their leadership skills; but they neglect to write about how good are they at following commands. 

Leadership qualities are one of the most crucial skills that get evaluated during recruitment. Every organisation has openings for successful leaders, especially to guide the junior employees with their work. The leader has a lot of responsibilities, but did you know that every great leader starts as a mere follower? We all learn better when guided by experienced people. We might fail to take the first step, but a good leader will help us stand up and move forward. On the other hand, when we keep following others, we restrict ourselves from trying something new. Therefore, walking behind the leaders is not enough for every scenario.

Here we have listed a few points of differences between leaders and followers.

Leaders instructs and followers follow- As a leader, you will be responsible for taking initiatives regarding any work. They make decisions, face challenges and maintain decorum within an organisation. On the other hand, the followers are like the soldiers on the chessboard. They take instructions from the leaders; however, they are not responsible for making any decisions.

Leaders come up with fresh ideas; whereas, followers implement those- It is usually the leaders who make an effort to bring about a change in an organisation. It might be because of their experiences and learnings from various challenges. However, it is not the general situation. Thinking about innovative ideas isn’t related to years of experience. Also, we must not forget that nobody becomes the best if they keep using others’ ideas.

The leadership position isn’t gifted but earned- Most followers want to lead the team but cannot become them due to lack of experience and other leadership qualities. However, it is due to their hard work, dedication and performance that they get promoted to higher levels. In every organisation, the leader is either elected or promoted based on their qualities and performance. Therefore, it is safe to say that the person works on leadership qualities even before receiving the responsibilities.

Leaders put an extra effort compared to their followers. We all know that leadership positions aren’t gifted but earned. Therefore, we can say that followers who put in an extra effort become a leader. Always remember that there might be several followers, but only one leader in an organisation.

These are some of the points which differentiate followers from leaders.