Skip to content
Great leaders are great followers

Great Leaders are Great Followers

The men’s group at my Church last year was having a discussion about leadership.  During our conversation, the discussion turned toward how important it is for a leader to be a good follower.  This is also known as Followership. Let’s examine this concept further. In an article titled, “Why the Best Leaders are Followers,” Michael Hyatt identified several followers in history that eventually became good leaders in their own right.  He used several examples from the Bible to make his point. Joshua followed Moses for 40 years and then led the people of Israel into the promised land. Elisha worked with Elijah for over 10 years before taking his place. The Apostle Peter followed Jesus and after his crucifixion, Peter became a leader of the new Christian faith. Aristotle was a follower of Plato and eventually became a great philosopher in his own right.  He understood the value of being a good follower. Warren Buffett worked under the tutelage of Economist Benjamin Graham for over 10 years before starting his own investment company and rising to the top of the industry. These are only a few examples. There are three key truths about being a follower that helps followers find…

Read more

What Can Law Enforcement Leaders Learn From CEOs?

A lot. You probably knew I was going to say that right? I guess I need to expand on that thought and explain what law enforcement leaders can learn from CEOs! Adam Bryant, a writer for the New York Times, interviewed and covered CEOs for a number of years.  He asked them the usual questions you would expect about their companies.  One day, Adam had a radical thought and decided to interview CEOs and ask them a different set of questions.  He focused on success, how they lead their employees and the life advice they give or wish they had received. Since that idea popped into his head, Adam has interviewed 525 CEOs as part of his Corner Office column. The CEOs interviewed were from both large and small companies. Some of them came from humble backgrounds while others were born with a silver spoon. Adam Bryant penned his final column recently titled, “How to Be a C.E.O., From a Decade’s Worth of Them.” In this column, Adam acknowledged he learned a lot from many of the CEOs about management, leadership, and human behavior.  Adam also acknowledged not all of the leaders were insightful. Adam identified three reoccurring themes that…

Read more

So You Want to be the Top Cop?

After working with the Marietta Police Department for almost 15 years and attaining the rank of Lieutenant, I still had not identified my long-term career goals.  Frankly, I only thought about my next promotion.  In my case, I was trying to figure out how to get promoted to Captain.  Outside of that thought, I was clueless. Until I met Chief Bobby Moody. Chief Moody took over the Marietta Police Department on July 1, 1996, as our police chief and my life changed forever. For the first time ever, a supervisor asked me about my plans for the future.  Chief Moody actually sat down with me and pressed me about my future career plans until I finally figured them out and answered him out loud.  I want to be a police chief!  I actually said it out loud and there was some relief in actually having a goal.  (I will discuss more about my talk with Chief Moody in future posts) My enthusiasm was short lived.  Reality set in. As I gathered information and conducted research about how to best prepare myself to be selected as a police chief, I found there were few resources available. I was very fortunate in…

Read more
Back To Top