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Is being a Follower a bad thing?
I'm eighteen years old, and I'm basically a follower. If real life were a video game, I'd totally be a support character. I'm very good at being backup, being there for people and sacrificing my own wants or needs for theirs. I'm also very good at following orders and respecting seniority. I have been my entire life. I always think about other people first. I follow people the majority of the time. If my friends and I, say, go to the mall or something, I prefer following behind them. I don't know why, it's just how I am!
It's not to say I can't lead. I guess I'm sort of a lazy leader, in a way. If a situation arises where there are all followers amongst us, I'll take the lead if I have to. But if anyone else wants to lead I'll follow them.
A follower is always described negatively... Is it really all that bad to be a follower? I mean, without us, leaders would have no one to LEAD, right? Thanks for your time. :D
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I understand perfectly where you come from. I was (or am) still like that too. 'i prefer becoming the vice president instead of the president' itself kind of thing. however instead of thinking, once a follower always a follower, its more like a follower slowly learning to be a leader. it all comes to self confidence and experience.
i am very bad at making decisions, i often thinks things in shades of grey instead of black and white and doubt my choices when i make them. so i always leave my friends to make the decisions, hence i often becomes the follower. however as your self confidence grows, your trust in the decisions you make also increase and you become less willing to follow other people's directions instead (on to becoming a leader). for example, at first i wanna go to shop A but my friends want to go to B. im too lazy to decide against or im not even sure that A is even a good shop, so we all go to B. however the next time, my friends wanna go to shop A but i am confident that B is better, so i become more confident in letting my friends know that we should go to B.
sorry if the example seems complicated.
anyway i think it should be half and half. sometimes it's great to be a follower; it's relaxing, there's no stress, you dont get ego trips and tantrums when things dont go your way. however, sometimes there are things where you have to take the lead and be assertive, otherwise people will look down and trample all over you.
be balanced.
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Being a follower does not have to be a bad thing. It can be a good thing. It all depends on who you follow and what they do. If you like being a follower choose a leader that has same values or morals. Like if your religious and you like a person beliefs. Be a follower at his church. If you have friends who have been in trouble with the law. is that a path you want to follow. It is not an easier choice. If you want to be a follower, and not a leader, choose a leader that is helpful not hurtful.
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Like the other columnists said, being a follower is usually perceived negatively. My opinion is that there are the natural born leaders and natural born followers. It works with the way some people's personalities are. Some people are just better at leading people than others.
However, that doesn't make being a follower a bad thing. Like you said, leaders need followers. I'm going to give you an example of how important followers are. I attended a leadership seminar recently where we watched a video. Basically, it started out with one guy dancing crazily by himself while everybody looked at him like he was weird. But one person in the crowd took a chance and got up there and danced with him. The audience saw this and eventually more people followed until almost everybody was dancing. The important part to this story is that usually a leader starts out as somebody with a crazy or different idea/approach and that first follower is the catalyst in the situation. This showed me how important followers (mainly the first follower) really are to leadership.
So back to my opinion on this. As I was saying leadership is built upon the first follower (and the next few). I don't think being a follower is bad unless you are only following because everybody else is doing it. Now if you do have that problem, I would advise to take more of an initiative. This doesn't mean that you should go out and change yourself to be a leader unless you are comfortable with it; I mean that you should try to be one of those first followers. Sorry if this was kind of confusing and long, but I hope it helped. Good luck with everything!
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I'm pretty much the same way. But yeah, being a follower is usually described negatively.
Honestly, the only times I see it as a bad thing is that they have a hard time making decisions, are taken advantage of, and depend on others.
So in your situation, its not a bad thing. It just depends on the situation of who you are following and why.
Going to the mall and walking behind them isn't a bad thing, but if you're following someone who is leading everyone into something stupid, then its a problem.
Most followers can't stand up for themselves. I don't even know if I'd consider you much of a follower. Maybe someone who is really supportive and doesn't like to be in charge all the time unless necessary. You just don't like being the center of attention.
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You're right the word follower generally invokes negative connotations. To me a follower is anyone who cannot think for themselves, voice opinion, lead or one who follows others in bullying people, ditching school, drugs, sex etc to be accepted as part of a clique.
To me that word doesn't apply to you. You like to hang back a bit and let others have their say and when the time is right lead. Nothing wrong with that but you MUST realize that these same people value your contributions and not be afraid to get in there and be as vocal as they are.
Contribute MORE than usual and see how that works. As long as you know how to let everyone have a say and express ideas there's nothing holding you back but an incorrect view held by you of your importance and where you fit. Fear is holding you back with these people from soaring and being you. Plain and simple. That's the issue.
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