Nityananda-kari dd asks:

(You) said ‘Level 5 leaders hold organizational priorities above ego priorities because they value the mission above themselves. ‘ and ‘level 5 leaders are committed above all to the mission. Followers or leaders who are not committed to the mission will destroy the organization.’ What’s the standard of a level 5 servant? If I know that I’m not a leader, but want to be a good follower, what guidelines should I follow? Can you put some light on this?

Thanks for your questions Nityananda-kari. I will do my best to reply.

Leaders and followers are both servants. After all, jivera svarupa haya, krsnera nitya-dasa. In his book The Courageous Follower, Ira Chaleff makes the point that followers do not orbit around leaders - both leaders and followers orbit around and serve a higher purpose. Just as teachers and students form a “learning circle” around a body of knowledge, similarly leaders and followers form an “action circle” around a common purpose.

Take away the knowledge, and the teacher-student relationship disappears. Take away the purpose, the mission, and the leader-follower relationship disappears.

Both followers and leaders work together in order to advance in an organized fashion toward common goals.

The term Level 5 Leader comes from Jim Collins, and was first introduced in an article that he wrote for the Harvard Business Review, entitled Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve. The idea was expanded and fully explained in his book Good to Great.

You can read about the concept of a Level 5 Leader on Jim’s website.

Here is a graphic from there that describes the hierarchy:

OK, so your question is, if I understand it correctly: “How can I be an effective follower?”

We are actually all leaders, because our actions influence others. There will always be someone who looks up to us, and even apart from that our actions contribute to an overall culture by reinforcing it. Even a follower leads by setting an example of how to follow. The best followers are leaders.

By asking this question you have already demonstrated a leadership quality - proactivity. You are not sitting back waiting for someone else to do something - you are doing something about the situation.

His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Swami, in his book Leadership for an Age of Higher Consciousness, explains that people end up with bad leaders because they do not know how to choose good leaders. Our present-day governments are elected democratically, so the people bear some responsibility for the leaders they end up with. Of course, the fairness of the electoral system in many countries is disputable, but in other arenas of life who we choose to follow is our own decision.

The first duty of a follower is to know who to follow. The qualification of a disciple is that they should know who is a real guru. Srila Prabhupada gives the example of gold - if you want to buy gold, then you had better know what real gold is, or you will be cheated. Similarly, if you are going to follow, then you had better know who is a real leader.

Blind following is condemned. We sometimes give the example of a soldier who kills on the command of superior officers and is thereby immune to prosecution. The analogy goes that this same person killing on their own prerogative is held accountable for their actions. This example is given to illustrate the idea that one who acts following the directions of the Supreme Personality of Godhead does not enjoy either the fruits or the reaction of their work.

However, to continue with this analogy, we find that the Nazi German soldiers who tried to use this defense at the Nuremburg trials after World War Two had it struck down. The court would not accept that they had “simply followed orders”.

Following these trials, every serviceman around the world now knows that they have a duty to refuse to obey illegal orders. This means that the soldier must know what constitutes legal and illegal orders. It is not enough to be a mindless automaton.

Similarly, we must know what are valid directions. We may not be able to take responsibility for other people, we may not be able to courageously initiate action, to inspire others to action, and to strategically navigate the way through a metaphorical battlefield, but we should still know enough to be able to recognize someone who can, and to know whether or not they are headed in the right direction.

If we are not a front-line person who leads the charge, but rather a second-line person who comes in directly behind lending support, then other second-line persons, and third-line persons will look to us for cues on who they should line up behind.

One of the arguments for Krishna being the Supreme Personality of Godhead that Srila Prabhupada would give was: “Vyasadeva has accepted, Madhvacarya has accepted, Ramanujacarya, Lord Caitanya, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakura and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati have all accepted. Therefore we also accept.”

We exist somewhere in a hierarchy. Both in front of us and behind us others are linked in. Our service is to lend our support in all directions. This is called 360 degree leadership. Whether our role is to demonstrate leadership in cleanliness by washing the floor with a cloth every morning, leadership in sadhana by rising early and chanting as an example for others, whatever it may be, we also have the responsibility to show others how to link into the hierarchy.

As Duryodhana exhorts his men: “Now you all show support from your different positions in the phalanx to Bhishmadeva” (Bg. 1.11).

So I would say this: Learn to recognise authentic and effective leaders, and follow them. Back them up. Help them by lending support and giving honest feedback, in that order.

You may not exercise leadership directly in a formal role, but you should still seek to learn about it in order to be able to recognize and support those who do, and in order to take responsibility for your influence on others. This is a very important service.

Thank you for your questions and the opportunity to respond to them. You have already taken the first step in your leadership development journey by asking them. I hope some of the above points are of service to you.

your servant,
Sita-pati das