A chief in front of his followers (5)

I believe the answer is:

ahead

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'front of his followers' is the definition.
'ahead' can be an answer for 'front' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'of his followers' bit.

'a chief' is the wordplay.
'chief' becomes 'head' (synonyms).
'a'+'head'='AHEAD'

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ahead that I've seen before include "In the lead, in advance" , "In the future" , "likely to win?" , "Winning" , "Forward - in front" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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