Nobody grows up wanting to be a great follower. For leaders, that is precisely the problem.

Ninety-nine percent of a working life is spent following somebody, yet nearly all of our employee development is aimed at building leaders. Every organization says it is looking for leaders. Every one of them runs on followers. An entire industry has been built on leadership: the books, the conferences, the corner office as the only destination worth naming. The other half of the relationship was left to chance, as though following were a waiting room to sit in until a turn came. Following is not a waiting room. It is the cornerstone every leader eventually stands on. It decides whether an enterprise holds together or quietly comes apart, and it is watched far more closely than anyone realizes.

In Natural Born Follower, Dr. Tracey C. Jones makes the case that followership is a discipline rather than a default. It can be named. It can be measured. It can be grown. The principles that make a person tremendous at it turn out to be the very same ones that matter when the seat finally changes.

Three years into a first job or thirty years into running the place, everyone is following somebody. This is a book about doing it magnificently. The follower you are today is determining the leader you’ll be tomorrow.

Dr. Tracey C. Jones is the author of fifteen books and the president of Tremendous Leadership, the sixty-year-old publishing company founded by her father, personal development legend Charlie “Tremendous” Jones. She is also president of T3 Solutions, Inc., her leadership development firm. A graduate of the U. S. Air Force Academy and a decorated Gulf War veteran, Tracey learned how to follow from leaders across the globe—as an Air Force officer, then in high tech and defense contracting, and now in publishing. She holds an MBA in Global Management and a PhD in Leadership.