Bold Followership

Well, happy Monday, Cadre. It's nice to see you. My name is JC Lippold, and if we've never shared time together before, thank you for the opportunity to do so right now. It is an honor to spend time with you. If that's something that's hard for you to realize or to own up to, I invite you to deal with it. You are a person who is changing the world simply by being in it. Simply not meaning easy, but simply meaning you. Being present changes everything around you. So, as I mentioned, my name is JC.

Normally, I go live on our professional development day a little bit earlier on in the day, but as we know, life happens sometimes. And I wanted to make sure that as we get into this new routine. Right. Routine is happy, it's healthy, it's something we can count on. We count on you and want you to know that you can count on your Cadre, your very special group of people with a very special intention. That's what Cadre is. What's that special intention? To invite each of us to see that there are many pathways to being well.

On Monday, we talk about your ability to grow professionally, to grow in your vocation, into the work that you are inspired to do in this world. And as you can see from the title of this livestream, it's called bold followership. There's a lot of encouragement to be a leader in this world, but if we think rationally for a second, if everybody's leading, who are they leading? If everybody is a leader who is a follower, we are. We have to flex our muscles. We have to train to be wonderful followers as much as we train to be wonderful leaders.

Maybe you spend 1% of your day as a leader, but think about when you're in traffic. You're as much a follower as you are every other person in automobile. Think about when you're in line at the grocery store. Think about when you are a citizen on the planet. Think about when you are the person holding the door open or the person having the door open for you. Every Monday, we'll take a little bit of time to consider how we can boldly follow, how we can get a little bit better at following. So I'm going to share one of my favorite concepts on followership.

That is from the studies of Professor Barbara Kellerman, who wrote a book called the Art of Followership. It's one of the only, but also one of the best texts on being a follower. Not only us as followers, but how do we look at those people who are following when we are a leader. And Barbara breaks down that there are four different segments in the way that she looks at followers. I'm going to spend a little bit of time talking about the middle two. So there's participants and there are activists.

Participants are those people who, let's say right now you are the leader and I'm the follower. If I'm one of your participants, I'm going to be one of the ones who say, hey, thanks, leader. I will absolutely engage in what you're putting into the world. If you're selling a product, I will buy that product. I will use that product joyfully. If you are sharing an idea, I will live in that idea and benefit from that idea. I will be inspired by that idea. I will be connected by that idea. Participants are the people who are going to get on your roller coaster and enjoy the ride.

And when the ride is done and the lap bar lifts up, they will leave and go into the rest of their day. We love our participants, your activists. One step up within this hierarchy of followers. Your activists are the people who not only will enjoy and consume the product, the idea, the ride that you are creating, and inviting them to be a part of, but they will also be the people who share it with others. They will be the ones who will get off of the ride, and then they will go to all of their neighbors.

Oh, my gosh, you need to go get on that ride. They are not only the people who will buy the product, but they will be the ones who share with everybody else. Do you have this product in your life? You really do. If you are running a campaign, they are going to be the ones who are door knocking for you, saying, believe in this person. This person is x, y, z. And I think that's great. Kind of sounds like participants are a little bit easier to have because activists are going to be the ones who require something back from you, right?

Some days, you're going to want to rest in your participants. In other days, you're going to want to go ahead and stand up and say, let's get our activists around and amplify the voice that we are putting into this world. But here's the deal. All of you leaders out there, we know in the cadres where many of you are sitting in powerful seats, and you're looking at the people who you have the opportunity and the challenge to lead. Here's the other thing about having bold followers. If you are leading without the voice of your followers in your ear, all of a sudden, all of those followers will go, I guess there isn't an opportunity here to be an activist, to be a part of this thing.

I can consume it, but I can't be a part of it. The wonderful thing about our activists in this world is they are the ones who give us the headaches. They're the ones who step up and step out of the bounds that their potential ideology of being a follower, of being a passive follower, provides them. They're saying, no, you know what? I care so much about this thing that I am going to share my voice, share my perspective. I'm going to share my where I harmonize with the idea and the direction, where I'm dissonant and where I'm going to push back.

Your activists are the ones who are going to act like all of those inner voices do your inner voices. So I invite you, when we take some time in bold followership, every Monday here on Cadre, place yourself in both seats, the seat of the leader, but also the seat of the follower. If you are leading, would you rather have followers who go, okay, I'll do what I'm told to do, or do you rather have followers who say, I am so invested in this that I am going to risk to change the direction, to amplify the direction, to accelerate the direction that we are going together?

And if you are a follower, are you following leaders who seem to appreciate your influence, your inclusion, or are you following leaders who simply want to sell you the thing and move on with their day? When we get stuck as a participant, we undervalue the power we have in this world. When we are sitting as a leader and we are afraid of our activists because we think that they are the ones who are going to complicate the simplicity or complicate the progression. Y'all. The beautiful thing about this human experience is that we are wonderfully capable through of our messiness, passive followership, lonely leadership, they may seem a little bit more comfortable, but for all of you who are dreaming big dreams, who are understanding the impact you can have on this world, lead to inspire activists and follow boldly.

Have a great day, everybody. You can see our professional development lineup here on Mondays is chock full. You'd have Darryl Glaze chatting in just about 50 minutes here. And then tonight, a special carryover. Jason Lennox, who normally does Sunday serenity to finish out the week, is going to be going live this evening to hold some space for you as a wonderful reminder, we can find our calm, our peace, our pause whenever we need, if we're willing to take it. Everybody have a great rest of the day.

Say hey to Daryl Jason for me. We'll see you tomorrow. Bye.