{"id":24,"date":"2012-04-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/?p=24"},"modified":"2026-08-02T04:21:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T04:21:54","slug":"dont-follow-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/dont-follow-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Follow Leaders\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overture:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t follow leaders \u2013 watch the parking meters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>YES YES YES YES YES<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t follow leaders \u2013 watch the parking meters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Huh?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Don\u2019t follow leaders \u2013 watch the parking meters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Bob Dylan said that<\/p>\n<p>But,\u00a0 you say, Have you gone Mad, Mister Peter?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Isn\u2019t <a href=\"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/blog\/category\/leadership\/\">leadership<\/a> important?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To which I answer:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes it is<\/strong> \u2013 but many get the concept of <span>leadership<\/span> and that of <span>management<\/span> confused. They think of them as being interchangeable.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes it is<\/strong> \u2013 but many who nominate themselves as \u201cleaders\u201d have no followers \u2013 as in they have no traits such that people would aspire to be like them<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yes it is.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How many well-intentioned people have fallen prey to the self-serving \u2018come-ons\u2019 of the false prophets masquerading as leaders who proliferate on the internet, and in society-at-large, today?<\/p>\n<p>Think About It\u2026..<\/p>\n<p>So, as I see it, I think that what Dylan was cautioning against was\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blind leadership.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Leadership of the blind, by the blind is bad enough.<\/p>\n<p>Leadership of the blind, by those with malicious or predominantly self-serving intent?<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a special room in Hell reserved for those who practice such leadership\u2026<\/p>\n<p>So just for today, for your contemplation, dear reader,<\/p>\n<p>I thought to set down some qualities of good leaders I have known personally<\/p>\n<p><strong>How about that they:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Have a purpose much greater than themselves<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Create a vision for their followers<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Create \u2018alone time\u2019 where they are not reachable<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Create a \u2018safe zone\u2019 for others to make \u2018mistake\u2019 in<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Take time to relate to people as individuals by showing they care<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>\u2026..<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>I invite you to make your additions to this list in the comments section below this post\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>You don\u2019t know who you will be helping by sharing wisdom from your experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>What about non-leaders who anointed themselves or were put into leadership positions.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Do they:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Take glory, delegate blame<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>micromanage<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>use people as a tool to reach their goals<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>work on the whats without communicating the whys<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Again, I invite you to make your additions to this list in the comments section below this post\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Again, you don\u2019t know who you will be helping by sharing wisdom from your experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Why must you do this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Because\u2026 someone is watching you and imitating you<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Because\u2026 as a fellow empowerer our mission is to push up people by letting others learn from OUR experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Because\u2026 we are all called to be, in the words of Saint Matthew, a light on the hill<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>BE-CAUSE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>It is , truly, that simple, and\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>YOU <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>ARE <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>SO <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>WORTH <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>IT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>In Freedom, Strength and Honor, I remain!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Your Empowered Friend<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>   Peter  <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overture: Don\u2019t follow leaders \u2013 watch the parking meters YES YES YES YES YES Don\u2019t follow leaders \u2013 watch the parking meters Huh? Don\u2019t follow leaders \u2013 watch the parking meters Bob Dylan said that But,\u00a0 you say, Have you gone Mad, Mister Peter? Isn\u2019t leadership important? To which I answer: Yes it is \u2013 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[57,43,26,45],"class_list":["post-24","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-empower-network","tag-bob-dylan","tag-empower-network","tag-leadership","tag-peter-pocklington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":221,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/freedomwithpeter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}