As someone that started his career 20 years ago, I had to learn how to be a follower before I could be the leader. In doing so, I had to take orders, follow directions and learn to respond in a way that provided my leaders constructive feedback, otherwise it would appear like I was whining. I got better at being a follower and started learning leadership skills so that one day I could transition to be a leader. A lot of times not only was I still the follower, but due to the poor or nonexistent leadership, I had to step in and be a leader. On the micro level, a follower can go beyond the formal title and position and participate in the leadership processes. The Harvard Management Update (2009) gives us five ways in which we can do this by establishing goals, thinking systematically, learn from experience while it’s happening, engage others and provide feedback (p. 1). A particular time I’ve been a leader as a follower was when I was working as a robotics manager and my regional...