By Barry Moltz, a small business speaker, consultant and author.

As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be the leader. Even though I was one of the smallest kids in my grade school, I managed to convince other kids to be my lieutenants so I could be the general. This worked for a while until the teacher forced us to “take turns.” I never liked that.

As I grew up, I found myself wanting to be at the front of the line during every organized activity. In Boy Scouts, I was the senior patrol leader. In my regional youth group, I was the president. I declined to participate in anything I didn’t excel at enough to become the leader.

Unfortunately, I had to be the leader or nothing at all. That would explain why I left a large corporation like IBM in 1991 to start my own company. I reasoned that as the founder and first employee of my own business, I always got to be the leader by default! I thought this way until I discovered that the best leadership lessons occur when I learned how to be a follower.

Ten years ago, my two sons became involved in a karate school, and I was asked to join their board of directors. As a director, I participated in making many important decisions that affected the strategic direction of the school. I assumed the role of one of the leaders of this organization.

A few years later, I decided to start taking karate lessons at the same school. Showing up for the first lesson as a student was the hardest part. As with most traditional martial arts, karate has a very well-defined pecking order. Practicing karate as a white belt, I was now at the bottom of the pile. I was a beginner and the ultimate follower.

This was unique to me because I never had the opportunity to be a follower and a leader in the same organization at the same time. As a beginner in karate, I learned to rest my mind and stop taking responsibility for leading anything. I was taught to just watch and do, but not think. I was taught to be a good follower and focus on my own progress rather than others. Learning to be a follower is a great way to develop leadership skills, because it teaches you to be open to learning something new. It gets you comfortable with not being an expert and not having the burden of knowing all the answers.

In his writings, Shunryu Suzuki called this the “beginner’s mind,” which allows for both doubt and possibility. He stated that approaching things constantly as a beginner keeps you humble. It also keeps you open to learning new things. This is especially important for the business leader who must constantly watch how they must change an approach to a particular situation as the market changes. Have you learned to be a good follower?