In 2010, Derek Sivers gave a short-and-sweet TED talk that changed my understanding of leadership forever. Showing a short clip of a shirtless guy dancing by himself at a music festival, Derek explains: “First, a leader needs the guts to stand out and be ridiculed.” Well, that part I knew. It’s the part every movie, book, interview, and case study explains over and over again.
In this particular case, however, the leader’s 100% improvised dance moves are easy to follow. Therefore, soon, his first follower joins him, taking on a role that, as it turns out, is just as crucial as the leader’s: “The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader,” Sivers says. This is “an underestimated form of leadership in itself.” After all, the first follower will stand out almost as much as the leader.
As soon as the third person joins, however, we’re no longer talking about one or two lone nuts. “Three is a crowd, and a crowd is news,” Sivers continues. Shortly thereafter, two more people join, then three more, then people already start running so they can “be part of the in-crowd.” Before long, not dancing would put you in the minority, and so within minutes, everyone is on their feet—”and that’s how you make a movement,” Sivers concludes.
Whether it’s an employee pitching a new initiative, a mom setting up a baking meetup, or a lonely dancer following the beat: An original leader’s courage sure is unparalleled. But if their vision is to become more visceral, a real community people want to be a part of and help push forward, they need a first follower to bridge the gap between them and the rest of the world.
That follower might not carry quite the same desire or creative spark that the leader does, but they’ll risk almost as much ridicule, all while comforting the lone nut as they keep dancing, normalizing their behavior for others to see and consider joining the cause. They rarely get it, but a first follower deserves just as much recognition as the visionary leading the charge.
Are you the former or the latter? It doesn’t matter—because early following, too, is leading, and we need all the lights in the sky that we can get.