Word.ws English Dictionary

lead, follow, or get out of the way

lead, follow, or get out of the way proverb: one should either take initiative, help someone who is taking initiative, or avoid hindering those who are taking initiative.

Proverb

lead, follow, or get out of the way

  1. One should either take initiative, help someone who is taking initiative, or avoid hindering those who are taking initiative.
    • Whether it’s a hesitating driver or a daydreaming queue-stander, I suspect that British and American participants alike would appreciate everyone involved to either lead, follow, or get out of the way. […] And so we meet the perspective: lead, follow, or get out of the way. Do what you’re here to...2018 May 26, “Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way”, in Embracing Followership, archived from the original on 15 Jun 2021
    • I do not believe entirely in the concept of “lead, follow or get out of the way.” Every member of a nonprofit must show leadership in his or her own way.2021 July 12, F. Duke Haddad, “Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way”, in CapDev, archived from the original on 26 Sep 2023

Origin of lead, follow, or get out of the way

Often attributed to Thomas Paine or George S. Patton.

Questions about lead, follow, or get out of the way

What does lead, follow, or get out of the way mean?
Lead, follow, or get out of the way means one should either take initiative, help someone who is taking initiative, or avoid hindering those who are taking initiative.
What part of speech is lead, follow, or get out of the way?
Lead, follow, or get out of the way is a proverb.

Words near lead, follow, or get out of the way in the dictionary

  1. lead vocalist
  2. lead vocalists
  3. lead vocals
  4. lead white
  5. lead with one's chin
  6. lead, follow, or get out of the way
  7. lead-acid
  8. lead-colored
  9. lead-footed
  10. lead-free
  11. lead-glazed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lead, follow, or get out of the way (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “lead, follow, or get out of the way.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lead%2C_follow%2C_or_get_out_of_the_way. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.