The Greek statesman Solon said: “He who has learned to obey will know how to command. » About 250 years later, the Greek philosopher Aristotle made the opposite of this statement when he said: “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. » The concept of following seems to have been an important idea in ancient Greece, but why is this idea of ​​being a good follower important to today's military leader? To be a truly effective leader, you must first learn to be a truly effective follower. Learning to be an effective follower is a necessary facet of effective leadership because we follow others from time to time, we learn by following, and we develop future leaders by following. The idea that we sometimes need to follow others revolves around two concepts (one relatively obvious, one not so obvious). The relatively obvious concept is the idea that we all have a boss and therefore will have to follow another person at some point. Buchanan supports this idea when he states, “Every level of the organization reports to someone.” Squad leaders report to platoon sergeants; company commanders report to battalion commanders; brigade commanders report to division commanders; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff reports to the President; even the president reports to the American people. Buchanan goes on to argue that effective followers are not simply "yes-men" but rather "challenge the boss when necessary and share their opinions, even if they may be considered controversial." The concept that is not so obvious is the fact that we are not always the experts. Our knowledge on a particular topic may be limited or even non-existent. In these cases, we must learn to step aside and “…… middle of paper……dy Bailey, “A Good Leader Knows How, When to Follow,” The Tennessean, http://www . tennessean.com/article/20131020/BUSINESS/310200077/Andy-Bailey-good-leader-knows-how-when-follow?nclick_check=1 (accessed February 28, 2014).U.S. Department of the Army, Leadership Army, Army Field Manual 6-22 (Washington, DC: US ​​Department of the Army, October 12, 2006), pp. Christine W. Zust, “The Best Leaders Know When to Follow,” available at www.zustco.com/cz_articles/leaders_know_when_to_follow.pdf (accessed February 28, 2014). Raymond W. Cox III, Gregory K. Plagens, and Keba Sylla, “The Dynamics of Leadership and Followership: Choosing to Follow,” International Journal of Intergraduate Social Sciences 5, no. 8 (December 2010): 46, Academic Search Complete, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=73343622&site=ehost-live (accessed March 1, 2014).