Modern people are not comfortable with hierarchy and authority, to our own detriment. Success requires both. For good reason, authority in modern times has lost a good bit of its legitimacy. That being said, authority and hierarchy will always exist, it’s a basic fact of nature like rain or the night and day. It’s always going to be there. Someone will lead, someone will follow, and sometimes it’s best to just get out of the way.
There are 3 good options in any situation.
1. Lead– if you know what you’re doing, have true expertise, and legitimacy, you can take the reigns and exert your will. You can lead. Leading means doing what’s right for your mission, goal, and team.
2. Follow– if you’re not the expert, or the authority, you can get in line behind the leader. Being a good follower means trusting the leader and submitting to authority.
3. Get Out of the Way– if you don’t like the leader, don’t respect him or her, and / or you don’t agree with the goal or mission, then it’s best to just get out of the way. This can be a good option because it’s better than leading when you’re not capable, or following when you don’t respect the leader.
Sabotage
It seems to me that one of the biggest problems we have in our culture is that instead of picking one of these 3- leading, following, or getting out of the way, due to pettiness, jealousy, immaturity and / or just plain old spite or diabolical evil, some people would rather sabotage the whole mission and ruin everything. Avoid those people and don’t be one of them either. And if you’re a leader or a follower, get them out of the way, because they have nothing to do with success and are often the cause of failure.
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