lead the way

lead the way (third-person singular simple present leads the way, present participle leading the way, simple past and past participle led the way)

1. To go first in a journey, procession, etc., so that others can follow.
2. (figurative) To act as a guide or pioneer.
   • 2005, Alan Montefiore, David Vines, Integrity in the Public and Private Domains, page 277:

     The Americans led the way in the postwar years, but UK, Continental European and Japanese companies have followed […]

   • 2022 January 26, “Network News: RIA lauds East Coast programme as default model for GBR”, in RAIL, number 949, page 11:

     Network Rail's East Coast Digital Programme (ECDP) should lead the way for a national digital signalling programme and other major schemes under the new Great British Railways public body.

• (antonym(s) of “to go first”): bring up the rear

• “lead the way”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.