• Insights

In my previous columns, I have written about the whole plethora of excuses that I have heard over the years as to why one becomes an entrepreneur. But last week, I heard something new, and that set me thinking.

This young, slightly cocky, engineering graduate, all of 23 years old, came to me for mentorship. So I asked him my usual question to aspiring entrepreneurs: Why do you want to become an entrepreneur? His answer was this: Because I can only lead, not follow. (Now you understand why I said he was cocky!)

So I thought, why not do some loud thinking on the value of followership in this month’s column? I don’t have any categorical opinions to offer or judgments to make on this topic; rather, I’m just drawing on my own corporate experience and that of my mentees to articulate some thoughts.

There is an amazing video on YouTube called “Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy.” I must thank my business partner Hemant for sending me this video. Watch it—not once, but several times—and see how it gives you goose bumps every single time. Not because it spouts any management jargon, but because it is homily delivered in the most telling fashion.

Some lessons extrapolated from the video:

1. There would be no leaders if there were no followers.
No rocket science, this. While it takes courage to become a leader (“Stand up and look ridiculous”), it is only when one acquires his first follower that he’s transformed “from a lone nut into a leader.”

Let’s understand this in the context of entrepreneurship. Your vision acquires stature only when you are able to sell it to the team that you hire. So, first hires are extremely important. They are your first followers, and they can make or break your image as a leader.

One of the lessons that I learned when I worked for eight years under one boss was that by being someone who is closely associated with the boss’ office and by being recognized as his ‘follower’, I had no option but to be like Caesar’s wife: beyond suspicion!

In fact, I was perhaps more under scrutiny than my boss was. And how the world looked at him was a reflection of not only how I looked at him, but how I communicated how I looked at him. That meant that even if I thought my boss was irrational, unpredictable, and sometimes even downright nasty, I could never share my thoughts with any of my team members. I knew that it would jeopardize not only his image, but my own stature as a leader as well. In being a good follower, I had to demonstrate that I was a good leader, too!

2. The follower has to be proud of his status as a follower.
A friend of mine, Sanjeev Joshi, is a very proud owner of an ID card with a number under 10 that he got when he joined Infosys. Followership means an opportunity to learn, share, develop, grow. It is such an enviable role to play.

When I joined the company that I worked at for eight years, the turnover in India was under Rs.25 lakh. When I left eight years later, we were a half billion dollar company. Every year, my boss’ role in the company expanded and with it, mine did, too. Just as he learned on the job, I had to learn on the fly, too.

In the early days, I used to get criticized for practically everything, even personal stuff. My boss was a Britisher who had a penchant for protocol. So, if I did not wear the appropriate shoes with my western formals or if I did not choose the right wine to go with the food on the table at an official dinner, I would get hauled up.

In the beginning, I used to resent this big time. But somewhere along the way, I figured that if I put my ego on the back burner, working with someone like him may actually make me a better leader.

3. Be a sponge as a follower.
Just soak up every little nugget of learning that is thrown at you. My boss was not only a perfectionist, he was inconsistent, too. So predicting his reaction was a huge challenge as a follower. Over time, I perfected the art of preempting every single possible reaction of his.

Now this called for phenomenal preparation on my part and a tremendous eye for detail, but there was no way around it if I had to survive being a follower of his. But now I am so glad that he was who he was because he made me who I am today.

4. Remember, if the leader is the flint, the first follower is the spark.
This means that a leader could either create a team that is warm and glowing, or he could create a forest fire that will destroy everything.

Let’s go back to what I said earlier about how first hires are very important for an entrepreneur. In addition to validating your vision, the quality of your first recruits determines the quality of the team you will build going forward.

Many successful entrepreneurs lament that their teams were great when they were small, but that once it became a headcount game, they lost out on quality and passion.

5. Create the first few followers as equals.
It is a peculiar psychology that when we become leaders, we treat our followers exactly the way we were treated by our leaders. So, if you are unlucky enough to have a Hari Sadu (remember the naukri.com ad on TV?) as your leader, however much you resent him when you follow him, chances are you will be a clone of him when you have followers.

That’s why, as an entrepreneur, you have to hire people who not only buy into your vision but who are also able to spread the good word down the line. One of my mentees recently had to fire the guy who was his first hire four years ago because he went around saying that but for him, the entrepreneur would still be languishing!

6. Followership makes you nimble-footed.
One of the things that my boss used to criticize me for was the fact that all my emotions would reflect on my face. So at executive meetings and such, the other members present at the meeting would just have to look at my face to know exactly how I felt about an idea that was tabled for discussion. During those days, I was always told that I will never make a good leader because one of the qualities that a good leader should possess is the ability to maintain a pokerface.

So, over the years, I perfected this to the extent that I became pretty much inscrutable. Then, I moved jobs. Three months into it, my new boss called me in for a chat. He said, “I like the way you work. I like the focus you have brought into the organization. But I have one serious problem with you: When I am talking to a person, I like to see emotions on that person’s face. Yours is so blank, it is disconcerting.” Needless to say, I had to adapt and change my face­­—again!

Just as leadership is over-glorified, followership is pretty much ignored in the corporate lexicon. The young entrepreneur I had spoken to recently will underestimate the importance of followership to his own peril.

There is a symbiotic relationship between leadership and followership—if you are a bad follower, willy-nilly, you will turn out to be a bad leader.
Come on entrepreneurs, let us celebrate the cult of followers!

NANDINI VAIDYANATHAN teaches entrepreneurship in biz schools around the world and has co-founded two companies, Startups (forstartups.blogspot.com) and CARMa (www.carmagroup.in), both of which mentor entrepreneurs.

©Entrepreneur March 2011

Tags:
leadership, Nandini Vaidyanathan