I’ve had a few conversations with @majken recently that keep reminding me of a video I once saw. I just found it again and think it might have some valuable lessons to keep in mind as we go down this leadership development path.
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I remember that video, and what a great way to frame it as a leadership
example. Thanks for this Lyre - stored in my list of resources.
This is so great. I’ve been saying for a while now “Leaders need followers.” You can’t be a leader without anyone to follow your lead, and your project will never succeed or gain momentum if everyone is trying to lead and no one is willing to get behind someone else’s great idea.
The lesson isn’t so much the leadership example (though it’s a very good lesson in how to be a good leader) as it’s a reminder not to over-glorify leaders. Leaders are not a more important form of contributor, it’s a symbiosis, and really for every leader you cultivate, you need many more followers to maintain momentum.
Something else I was saying to Lyre, which made him say “oh snap!” (which made me laugh!), is that trying to turn good contributors into leaders can backfire. Just like not every great coder is a great manager, not every great volunteer is a great leader. Not being a great manager doesn’t make your code contributions any less vital.
Anyway, this discussion wasn’t about criticizing Participation’s leadership efforts, we were more talking about how to make sure the non-leader contributors weren’t overlooked because of the leadership efforts.
I decided I identify really strongly with this, and started a Mozillians group! https://mozillians.org/en-US/group/first-followers/