Frank Leonard & Associates

When to lead, when to follow Most of the posts to my blog are about leadership – often they are lessons I’ve learned and practices I use.   This post will address an issue I struggled with: knowing when to lead and knowing when to follow. I’ll admit that in my early years I wanted to lead for the sake of leading – executing a coup at recess to take over the grade five book club is hard to be proud of.   I wasn’t very good at sports or music so never had illusions of grandeur with those pursuits but when I grew up and found my passions – business and politics – I was always looking to take charge. Yet wanting to take charge is very different from knowing when to lead.   Taking charge and marching off in a new direction will likely teach you the difference between leadership and arrogance – such as when you look over your shoulder to notice that no one is following you. Leadership requires credibility, trust, skill, experience and particularly a sense of timing. I

Don’t Sell a Bad Idea When I was ten years old I’d order merchandise from the back page of comic books and sell them door-to-door.   In the spring, I’d be selling flower and vegetable seeds and in the fall I’d sell Christmas cards.   In high school, I’d sell myself in student council elections and eventually joined Junior Achievement, a ‘learn-by-doing’ business program.   In fact, I won their national sales contest in 1972 and the $500 scholarship paid for my first year university tuition , all my books and I still had money left over. I joined our family tire business at 15 years of age and was selling in the showroom, ‘selling up’ while working in the service bays and as soon as I could drive, I was selling tires ‘on the road’ to gas stations and trucking companies.   Even though I was only 32 when I decided to run for political office, I was an experienced ‘pitchman’ at all candidates meetings and on the door step.   Once in elected office, I soon moved into leadership