Great Leaders Don’t Create Followers—They Create Leaders

A note to young leaders.

Great leaders neither seek nor want followers. They seek and encourage leaders in training.

At a dinner held in his honour, the great Austrian economist and political philosopher, FA Hayek, now in his 80’s, stood up and said:

“I hope there won’t be any Hayekians. Followers cannot be better, and are so often worse, than the people they purport to follow. Marxists are worse than Marx, Keynsians are worse than Keynes, Freudians are worse than Freud.”

Followers think less, feel more certain – and are less nuanced and more extreme than their leaders.

Followers follow rules. Leaders understand the exceptions.

All hail Hayek, he got it right. Never be a follower, be a leader in training.