Leader Follower Relationship

We all go through our jobs, organizations, life day to day, but it really is wild when you take a step back and assess how strangely human the whole leader–follower dynamic really is. We talk about leadership like it’s this big, formal thing, but in real life, I see it a lot in manufacturing, it’s way more fluid than that. Some days I’m leading, some days I’m following, and most days I’m bouncing back and forth depending on what the floor throws at us. It never looks as perfect or structured as a textbook makes it sound.

The moments where things actually work are not the ones where somebody with a title is marching around directing traffic. It’s when people just move. When a tradesperson jumps in before anyone asks. When an engineer reroutes something upstream to keep us on track. When a TRACK kid or an intern volunteers an idea because they’re too new to be jaded. That natural rhythm is what keeps builds moving more than any top-down order ever could.

When I took Obolensky’s assessment in Chapter 10 of Complex Adaptive Leadership, it honestly just confirmed what I already knew about how I operate. My highest score landed in the space of:
“Give the team room, keep an eye on things, and step in only when it’s actually needed.”
And that…yeah. I'm proud to say that’s me. That’s how I’ve always worked. The best leaders I’ve ever met or worked for, whether they had a title or not, were the ones who trusted the team enough to let them lead. They didn’t hover. They didn’t pretend to have every answer. They created space and clarity, and then moved with us, not over us.

My scores came out as: S1: 3, S2: 4, S3: 4, S4: 5.
Nothing shocking there. If anything, it made me laugh because it just highlighted what my day-to-day already proves: I don’t jump straight to telling people what to do. I’d rather ask, “What are you seeing? What do you think?” and nine times out of ten, the team already knows exactly what needs to happen. A good leader allows their team to work through it. You should not be leading a team if you are not capable of growing those who report to you. That is the whole point. 

NGC 4038/4039, Antennae Galaxy Two galaxies are merging 65 million light-years away, and the collision is creating thousands of new star clusters. Astronomers say neither galaxy “runs the show” anymore. The real magic comes from how they interact. 

(Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: B. Whitmore (STScI))

Over the past six weeks, my thinking hasn’t done a dramatic 180, but it has very much sharpened. I’m seeing more clearly now why stepping back is sometimes the strongest leadership move you can make. It’s not “hands off,” it’s knowing when to guide and when to let people steer. Genuinely, that’s the kind of leader I want to continue becoming. Not someone who runs the whole show, but someone who sets the conditions for everyone else to shine.

Leadership isn’t about being the loudest in the room. It’s about choosing when to move, when to support, and when to let your team take the lead entirely. And that feels a lot more aligned with the kind of workplace I want to help build.

Until next orbit,
~ Sam ☺