The Leader in the front, the followers behind.
Posted by room18space on August 26, 2008
Ko te amorangi ki mua,
Ko te hapai o ki muri.
The Leader in the front,
the Followers behind.
This is a continuation of our rich task focus and our philosophy focus of whanaungatanga – togetherness.
There may be some of you who agree, or disagree with the Maori proverb, but just like any philosophical discussion, you will need to explain your reasoning behind your response and you must also refer to, discuss or challenge another poster’s point of view. State whether you agree? Why? Do you disagree? Why? Ask questions and explore this proverb.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Hi Guys,
Like I said in class I think a good way to describe the leader in the front,the followers behind by talking about a boss/bosses and the staff. This is like the boss/bosses are the leader(s)and the staff are the followers. If there wasn’t a boss the staff wouldn’t know what to do and if there wasn’t a staff then the boss would have nobody to tell what to do.
I also think that the boss has to work just as wellas the staff because if you didn’t work would be unfair and you dont boss people around if you arent going to do anything.
August 26th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
Thanks for being the first to post Nina.
I am wondering if your comment is true. Do you really think that if a boss is absent then their staff may not be able to work properly?
I like the way you talked about fairness also – is there a difference between a good leader and a bad leader? What makes a good leader in this case.
Do we even need a leader at all?
Andrew
August 26th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Hi
I agree with Nina that you can compare leaders and followers with staff and bosses but I think staff have their own responsibilities. For example, if the boss is away the staff still have to do their jobs.
Maybe it is more like a team and a team captain – you all have a job in the team but the captain makes decisions for the team.
You can good leaders and bad leaders. A bad leader could be bossy and not do much work himself. A good leader would be fair and take equal responsibility. He would liked by the followers.
I think we do need leaders to give the followers their roles and responsibilities.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Hi
I think that a leader is like the boss or the main part like just say you had a house its main structure and then say things like doors and windows were followers then if you took away a window then the house would not be complete. Also i think that sometimes you need a leader but then other times you don’t like for rich task you could have a group of 4 but then if you are all doing diffrent jobs for that group then you would be your own leader but in a school you probely need a boss because their is much more people and lots of diffrent roles and jobs that people do.I think that a good leader is someone that is responceable, not to bossy but can control people and listen to there ideas but to also be a follower sometimes them self to let other people have a go.
I also think that sometimes the “leaders in front the followers behind” is true some times it is not because it sounds a bit like the followers are useless but i think that the followers have a just as big job as the leader because OK if one of them was gone it would probely be no big deal but the followers all together do something they support the leader if they wern’t there then the leader wouldn’t have any one to lead and would have a big job or be pointless.
bye bye
from kate
August 27th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Hi its Harry
I think leaders are as important as the followers.
Because with out the followers what is there for the leader to lead ?
And with out leaders the followers would just argue and wouldn’t get anywhere.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
hi Francesco
I think the leader is the boss or chief of the group and tells people what to do. some leaders are bossy and they treat followers like servants but a good boss should do the work too.I agree with Harry both of them are just as important. If the leader is away there are normally second in charge like in the army first comes the genral then the commanders and so on.If the followers dont like there leader the change him with another better person
August 28th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
A leader(a chief or boss)is a person who is in charge of a country,an organization,or a group of people.A good leader takes care of his followers or maybe servants.A leader needs leadership to be a good leader.A good leader needs to have management skills,good interpersonal relationships with others and flexibility.A bad leader doesn’t know how to handle people in his/her group.People in his/her group cannot see a good leadership on the leader thats why sometimes the people doesn’t follow the leader.The followers are as important as the leader because a bad leader can have people but the bad leader can lose some people if the people cannot see leadership,management skills,good interpersonal relationships with others and flexibility on the leader.My uncle left his job because his boss (leader) wasn’t good to him.
A leader is also important to the followers because if the leader is missing the people woudn’t know what to do like the brain.The body wouldn’t know what to do.If there is no leader the people wouldn’t follow anybody.Like the clock.The leaders are the batteries and if you don’t put them on the clock won’t respond (follow).
August 31st, 2008 at 9:58 am
I think the leader is someone who the followers look up to advice and to give instruction on what to do next. the leader has to be responsible to take charge and always be prepeared incase anything happens to his/her people and has to be nice and kind. The followers have to respect there leader and follow the rules other wise everything might go wrong. If the leader wasn’t there the followers wouldn’t know what to do next and if the followers weren’t there the leader wouldn’t have any one to lead and would have to do every thing him/herself. So the leader and the followers have different jobs to get one main job done,
Thanks Anneke
September 1st, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Hi guys,
I agree with what Harry said because if there was no leader then how would the followers know what to do. The leader needs to control the followers and lead them to the job they are working towards completion.
I also agree with Harry because if there was no followers there wouldn’t need to be a leader to control or lead anyone. Then that means there would’nt be anyone.
I also think that the qualities of a leader include being able to control the followers and keep everything under order.
Gilbert good leader
bad leader 
September 2nd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I think that there are lots of different leaders some bossy some that you can trust but a good leader would definitely be one that doesn’t boast and boss you around. You would also need a leader who knows what they are doing, for example if you had a leader that didn’t know what they were doing nothing would ever get done. Going way back to what Camille was taking about in class about the idea of a house with the main beam or pole and then the walls and other things. I think that that really explains a leader because it’s true e.g. if you had a house with out main pole or beam it wouldn’t be a house jut a pile of wood. When some one sys leader I picture a family tree with the leader at the top then the co-leader……… A leader would also be someone who’s a good role model and that kids can look up to, like a pop star and her fans. I agree with Daphney about a group of people with a leader. Another example is when you have a game of chess; you have the King and the Queen. Also on the picture above you can see the leader who’s at the front calling and the followers behind.
Bye Bye
Anna
September 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Hi
If there was no leader the followers would not no what to do and the leader would not be taking part in the statment “With your food basket and my food basket the guests will be fed”
A leader takes a big responsibility to lead the followers on to a marae it is a very important job.Some leaders can be understanding or bossy but I think a good leader should be a little bit bossy and nice this is so he\she can take control of the followers.A leader also needs to be a role model that lots of people can look up to and want to follow.
Bye
September 4th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I think there is a huge difference between a good leader and a bad leader. For example:if there’s a prime minister as the leader, the ministers and citizens of the countries are the followers, and the prime ministers responsibility is to keep the country in a good condition by advising the ministers to do their roles such as, the health minister to control the health departments, and give advice to the doctors and to look after the citizens health conditions, and the defence minister to give advice to the police, navy and giving advice to keep the country in peace by defending the people and guiding them.The finance minister to keep the countries ecnomy in a good condition, and the agricultural minister has to give advice to the farmers, and to help them out.
And if the prime minister is a good leader here as I said, the countries health, ecnomy, education, finance and the agricultural sysytems will be a prosper.
If the leader in here, doesn’t do a good job, which is bad the followers will end up in a great disaster and there can be riots, financial, educational, agricultural, health problems, and the country will be poor.
Do we need a leader?
I think yes, because if the country doesn’t have good leaders the citizens which are followers will not know what to do.
September 4th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
As Camille said in Philsophy today, the followers would probably work better if the leader was gone then if thee followers were gone because the followers would be able to make thier own thing up. But I was thinking and what if there was only one follower e.g. one on one tennis coaching when the coach takes one person and teaches them for the whole time. If you had never played tennis before you would have no idea what to do and there would be nobody to tell you what you had done wrong so in a way I disagree with what camille said but also agree at the same time.
:0 
:0
From Nina
September 5th, 2008 at 9:16 am
jock here,
well i think that this proverb actually means that you have a leader and then you have like a bunch of people that like take your advse and follow you but i still think if the leader went they could still work together and sort it out.
thanks
September 17th, 2008 at 9:01 am
My dear New Zeland friends,
I am about to write a new story on spotlight4’s website. I am going to be an admin of spotlight4 for alittle while, writing my stories of FlameNinga and his new team, make sure you check them out! They will be posted soon.
-FlameNinga
September 17th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Hi ashley here
I think do not think a leader has to be better than the followers because if there were no followers the leader would not even exsist.
I just wanted to make a point who said their actually was more than one follower because in somecases there would be only one follower.I do think mostly it is going to be more than one follower.
Any way I think the leader is like a compass e.g if i went to another country for a holiday for my first time ever and went on tour when i find out the tour guide is not there i probaly going to get lost.so my point is a leader could just be someone who tells you where you need to go how you get there etc.
going back to the holiday example again if i was traveling in my car looking for a street that was named on the map but did not actually have a signpost on the road i am more than likely goig to get lost except if i saw someone who actually lived there and i asked them they are probaly going to know where it is etc.
so therefore a leader could be any one in any way even if they are younger than you. Some things you might know that your parents don’t and you teach them that could be one type of leader.
I agree with amelia and do not think that the leader should be bossy or think they can take controll.
ashley
September 17th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Hi everyone,
I agree with the statement, The leader in the front the followers behind because if there were no followers then there would be no one for the leader to lead. The same if there were no leader there would be no one for the followers to follow.
I think it is important to have a leader because if there wasn’t a leader then the followers wouldn’t know what to do and everything would just fall to pieces. The same as I said before, if there were no followers there would be no one for the leader to lead.
I also agree with Amelia and that leaders can be a little bossy but only if they really need to.
Bye for now,
Isabella
September 21st, 2008 at 10:21 am
Hi,
I think that there doesn’t always have to be a leader but if I used the example of a teacher and students we just do what it says on the board and if Andrew isn’t there than we don’t know what to do, however I think because we have been in the same class for nearly 3 terms some us could get on to it but we don’t learn as much if the teacher is not there because he/she has more knowledge then us as he is the alertest like the ancestors so he/she can teach us.
Kind Regards
Nina
September 25th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Hi
i agree with nina because
we would not get much education if andrew wasn”t there.
Harry
September 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Well, back
FlameNinga has decided to quit the new team, but that does not mean his stories are over!