Follow behind following flightless bird (7)
I believe the answer is:
emulate
'follow' is the definition.
(to emulate someone is to follow their example)
'behind following flightless bird' is the wordplay.
'behind' becomes 'late' (as in behind schedule).
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'flightless bird' becomes 'emu' (emu is a kind of flightless bird).
'late' after 'emu' is 'EMULATE'.
(Other definitions for emulate that I've seen before include "Compete" , "Try to equal or excel" , "Strive to equal or better" , "Try to be equal or better than" , "Follow in the footsteps of" .)