Choosing Roles When Momentum Truly Matters
Created at: August 30, 2025
Lead, follow, or get out of the way. — Thomas Paine
A Triad That Clarifies Responsibility
“Lead, follow, or get out of the way” compresses a complex social reality into three clear roles. It rejects dithering and demands contribution aligned with capability: set direction, support direction, or remove friction. By stripping away ambivalence, the aphorism honors momentum as a public good. Progress often stalls not from opposition but from clutter—well‑meaning hesitations, overlapping mandates, or ego-driven bottlenecks. The line asks us to choose a posture that advances the mission, not ourselves.
Historical Resonance and the Paine Connection
Though commonly attributed to Thomas Paine, the phrase is likely misattributed; versions such as “Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way” appear with Gen. George S. Patton (War As I Knew It, 1947) and later with Lee Iacocca in business rhetoric (Iacocca: An Autobiography, 1984). Even so, its spirit matches Paine’s agitational clarity in Common Sense (1776), which urged colonists to stop hedging and choose independence. Thus, whether on a battlefield, a factory floor, or a pamphlet stand, the triad functions as a moral nudge toward decisive alignment.
Movements That Chose Roles Wisely
The Montgomery Bus Boycott illustrates how role clarity sustains change. Leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., E. D. Nixon, and Jo Ann Robinson coordinated strategy and logistics; tens of thousands followed through carpools and disciplined nonviolence; hostile authorities were ultimately forced to yield when Browder v. Gayle (1956) ended bus segregation. By recognizing when to lead, when to follow, and when to stop obstructing, the movement converted moral conviction into durable outcomes—showing the triad’s power under pressure.
Execution, Bottlenecks, and Organizational Flow
In organizations, the line translates into operational discipline. Patton’s dictum about executing a good plan now versus a perfect plan later, and Eisenhower’s “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything” (1957), both prize momentum over paralysis. Meanwhile, the Toyota Production System targets waste and blockers so work can flow (Ohno, Toyota Production System, 1988). Leadership theory echoes this pragmatism: Heifetz’s adaptive leadership (Leadership Without Easy Answers, 1994) urges leaders to mobilize others, then step back so the system can learn—leading, following, and making room in turn.
The Psychology Behind Stalled Decisions
Hesitation has cognitive roots. Status quo bias (Samuelson & Zeckhauser, 1988) and the bystander effect (Darley & Latané, 1968) nudge groups toward inaction, especially under ambiguity. Countering these tendencies means assigning explicit roles and time boxes so choice beats drift. Moreover, healthy followership—Kellerman’s term for engaged, ethical support (Followership, 2008)—creates momentum without ego. At the individual level, committing to a role can trigger flow states that reinforce competent action (Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 1990).
Ethical Guardrails for a Hard-Edged Maxim
Still, urgency can be misused to silence stakeholders. “Get out of the way” must not become “be quiet.” Heifetz reminds us that leaders should protect dissent long enough for learning to occur. Stakeholder theory (Freeman, Strategic Management, 1984) and the disability-rights maxim “Nothing about us without us” caution that those affected deserve voice. The maxim thus gains integrity when paired with inclusion: invite the right people to lead, empower others to follow meaningfully, and ask obstructors to yield only after fair hearing.
Putting the Maxim to Work Today
Practically, begin by naming the mission and the moment. If you hold vision and resources, lead; if someone else does, follow with excellence; if you lack both, remove friction by clearing paths, ceding airtime, or reallocating attention. Then, reassess as conditions change—roles are situational, not permanent. In this cadence of choosing and re‑choosing, the aphorism becomes less a threat and more a social contract: we owe each other momentum when the stakes are shared.