“There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” -Edith Wharton Cynthia Lange closed her Relief Society lesson with a really insightful statement that I’ve been pondering.
She mentioned attending leadership seminars of all sorts over the years and the abundance of workshops teaching skills to train leaders. Then, she noted that outside of the church, no one really teaches people how to be good followers.
That really resonates with me. It seems like every organization touts grooming leaders all the while failing to acknowledge there will always be plenty of us who are called upon to sustain leaders rather than be leaders.
In many ways I’m probably more suited to be a follower; mostly since I don’t care much for the limelight. So, some of the skills that make good followers that we talked about in the RS lesson yesterday are being supportive, offering encouragement, not judging, and a willingness to pitch in and assist. Many traits of being a good follower are just as critical for life generally as the attributes of leaders. It definitely behooves us to seek some skills in both categories!
“Followers are more important to leaders than leaders are to followers. -Barbara Kellerman
