Between 2002 and 2008, I had the opportunity to become deeply involved with the Balfour Leadership Training Workshop. Founded in 1947, this collegiate leadership training program is the world's largest conference of its kind, with more than 1,400 attendees and 200 facilitators and staff members. It was a significant growth opportunity for me to become a facilitator, a division leader, and eventually the chairman of the program.

During last year's workshop, we hit the pinnacle of its 61-year history with an all-time attendance record, a keynote presentation from former Medtronic CEO and Harvard Business School professor Bill George, and presentations from The Home Depot Founder Ken Langone and Betty Ford Center Director Dr. Sally Diane. I had the chance to speak to a crowd of more than 1,500 people about building, living and leaving a legacy through one's leadership, and we spent three days teaching the attendees how to hone their leadership skills while building a shared vision and a strategic plan for their campus organizations. Anyone who knows me has a sense for the boundless belief that I had in the potential impact of programs like these.

As this event is now less than three months away, I have gotten a lot of inquiries from people asking why I decided to voluntarily step down from my chairmanship last Fall. I decided to simply address it here. As we taught in our program, leadership is not about being a taskmaster who conjures up a goal and barks out orders to his/her minions until it is achieved. Modern leadership leverages an intricate balance of people skills and communication to develop a shared vision with our stakeholders, a strategic plan for proceeding along the intended path, a culture of accountability and execution, and impeccable character and encouragement amongst the organization's members. I once blogged about the upside-down model of leadership and the death of heirarchical management, and I firmly believe that any adept servant leader will be able to find success in today's world.

Unfortunately, the top officers to which my committee reported did not share this modern view of leadership. In fact, they did not believe in leadership training, strategic planning or curriculum focused on mentorship, group communication or inspiring a shared vision. There were only two or three people whose vision of the program disagreed with their stakeholders, but instead of collaborating and compromising, they decided to leverage their authority to the detriment of the workshop. My committee had to slowly watch the program that we built and loved eventually regress through their uninformed and underqualified direction. It was a difficult pill to swallow and we knew that the college students would sacrifice much more than we did.

In most non-profit institutions (and many private businesses), bylaws are written to assume benevolant dictatorship. When that power is abused by inadquate leaders, the organization is ultimately hindered. In the absense of available recourse to counter these steps taken to dismantle our program, I decided to step down. You can study leadership theory at many universities and you can find hundreds of books that offer various perspectives, and the one thing they all agree on is this: a leader is not a leader if no one is voluntarily following him/her. By definition, the word "lead" assumes that there are other people who share and support the same vision. If you turn around and nobody is following you, you're not a leader. So, I decided that the strongest statement I could make was to discontinue my followership of the misdirected administration. I wrote a poignant letter to the officers of the organization to let them know my reasons and intentions, and I didn't pull any punches in my explanation.

I think it's important for all of us to remember that, in any organization, supporters are just as important as leaders. Even when you don't realize it, your followership is voluntary. If you don't believe in the leadership of your company or organization, it is a breach of integrity for you to continue to support them. I'm not talking about the strategy or tactics - those can be improved through constructive collaboration by open-minded executives. I'm talking about the leadership practices that are employed. If those are lacking, I suggest you find greener pastures. You'll put yourself in a position to add meaning and value to your life.