While aspiring to be a leader, it’s easy to develop role models.

It’s almost automatic to the process.

This is a good practice.

“Before you can lead, you must first learn to follow.”

The key word is, learn.

When following people in leadership roles, there are characteristics that we want to emulate and those that we don’t.

Whether those qualities are communication, decision making, vision, integrity, etc. Learning the attributes that you admire in someone else, will lead to you bringing those same qualities to your own leadership style.

Following someone else, teaches us things about ourselves; Our own strengths and weaknesses.

There are nearly a trillion of books, coaches, and seminars teaching on the topic of, leadership.

The key word is, teaching.

These things are great don’t get me wrong, but they replace doing with reading.

When you follow a leader, you experience:

• The results of a decision
• How he/she reacted under pressure
• How they listened to the ideas of others
• How they communicated with their colleges
• How they prioritize their time, etc.

Following a leader, directly, results in learned knowledge.