Month: June 2019

Throughout my career I have watched leaders have an expectation of their subordinates  to follow them blindly. They expect loyalty at all cost without  actually putting in the work to gain the loyalty. Far too many people  believe that receiving a title earns them respect and admiration that so many have earned. They think that the title in itself entitles them to people respecting and following them.

You cannot lead from a sense of entitlement because you are in fact entitled to nothing. No one has to respect you, no one has to listen to you, no one has to show you any form of loyalty, no one. A good subordinate will give respect to the title but not the person and others will respect nothing, if you are an entitled leader.  The respect and admiration of subordinates needs to be earned. 

As subordinates are expected to work for the leader, there  is an expectation for the leadership to do the same. Like the chicken and the egg, what comes first, the actions of the leader or the led? It is in my opinon that leaders must show their worth to their subordinates first in order to gain the type of followership that is desired. When you take over a position of leadership you are now being evaluated by the staff, they want to see what you are planning to do with your new found power. What changes are you going to make, are you going to introduce yourself, set expectation, what?

Because you are not entitled to anything it is best that you ask the staff what their needs are because in essence you work for them. Plan how you are going to lead this group of individuals with the professional needs of the staff in mind. This doesn’t mean to roll over and do whatever they think is needed, it means understand them and make the necessary adjustments that will help them better work for you. Followers want to know that the leadership cares about them. They want to know that although there is a job that needs to be done, they will look be looked out for.

I have been both the leader and the led and there is nothing that I hate more than for someone to take over a position and to: 1) not introduce themselves  2) not set their expectations and 3) not ask what is expected of them. These people come in and just start barking orders, “Hey guy, slow down and tell us who you are first.” When you introduce yourself and you methodology, you set yourself up for productivity and will in essence have a successful team. Take the time to meet each other, because once again the subordinates owe you nothing and you are entitled to nothing so earn it.

By. Nicole A

Subordinates owe you nothing and you are entitled to nothing so earn it.

Nicole Atchley

I am so happy to have started this blog. I’m Nicole Atchley, I have lived a life where leadership roles have been evident since I was 14. My leadership journey began when I was enrolled in the JROTC program in high school and it was there that I began to realize that some people are born leaders, some are made and others, well they should stick to following. It was there that I saw, there are people put into positions that are undeserving, untrained and unprofessional. It was also there where I saw people with natural born leadership skills, that can get people to follow them anywhere.

When I joined the Army Reserves, it was in Basic Training that I accepted that I had the natural ability to lead. It didn’t matter what I did to stay out under the radar, people gravitated towards me. People were constantly asking me to teach them, train them and would follow my every lead. As much as I tried to tell people no, I couldn’t help but to guide them and help them know the things that I knew. Throughout my Army career I have learned so much about leadership and have taken these lessons to develop myself into a leader that I would be proud to follow. The Army taught me that leaders at all levels need training and it is an essential part of their development.

Early in my Army career I was deployed overseas ( this was back in 2004), upon my return I was encourage to take the NYC Correction Officer test. I took the test and passed. I became a NYC Correction Officer, where of course I was forced into leadership in the Academy and was annoyed by the lack of leadership development when I got out of the Academy. As a Correction Officer I had to work under supervisors that were promoted because they passed an exam, not because of competence. They were not put in these positions based on their ability to lead, train or effectively manage a housing area, they were promoted based on their ability to remember policies. These supervisors lacked the ability to effectively lead officers. The ones with natural abilities and prior military experience often did well, while others were terrible at their jobs. I couldn’t believe that an organization with such an important job lacked the foresight to ensure that those chosen to make life decisions were so poorly prepared to do so.

Naturally I didn’t stay a Correction Officer, after 6 years I had moved on. During that time I became an Army Reserve Drill Sgt, a Combatives Instructor and trained thousands of deploying Soldiers. I was pretty done with the unprofessional and under trained supervision of the Dept. of Corrections. I ended up working in youth development and ran into many of the same issues. People lack the ability to lead and it is not always because they don’t want to be better leaders, but it is because they lack the training. This is where I come in, I want to lead and train people to be better versions of themselves so that they will have better prepared and more productive staff, it’s all about Perspective.

Come on this journey with me. Leaders lead from the rear, because they can see everything that is around them. They can see where the team is falling short, the strengths and the weaknesses. From the rear you can see the whole picture and make necessary adjustments. Of course we always hear the term, “LEAD FROM THE FRONT”, that is more about setting the example, and will always be the case, but if you always stand in front of your people, you will never know what is going on behind you.

By: Nicole Atchley

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all abut growing others.”

Jack Welch