Cooldown tracking on followers

My 5-man team mostly uses GSE macros but I have been unhappy because the big cool downs are used on single trash mobs. I want to break them out of the macros. I want to use the abilities but I need to know if they are off cool down before I spend the time smashing the button when it's not ready. How do you guys go about this? For example, if you're running 5 pallies you don't want all 5 to use their stun but you also don't want to hit the keys for stun when the ability is not available. I need a way to track the cooldowns but also activate the ability from my main. I was planning to use VideoFX, yet once again, one window for each action bar slot but I was thinking there has to be a more efficient way. How do you guys handle this? Thanks.

I use the addon named "tellmewhen".
You can create buttons and choose which spells, items etc you want to track on any character, from your main. It will show a similar cooldown grafic to the default ui, if you want. You have to create one icon/bar for each characters spell.

I have this for most major cooldowns, stuns, interupts etc. Its very handy indeed.

Though, if i were you, i would try to learn how to use "weak auras" addon: its the new hotness, many say.

Thanks for the reply. Actually I am pretty familiar with Weak Aura's. The problem is I can't find any setting that will allow me to track another player's cooldowns. Trigger1 ->Status -> Action Usable will allow me to track the account that it's on but does not give me an option for another player. I asked about this on the Weak Aura forums a while back and they said something along the lines of I would need to create a private channel and send messages across when spells are cast. Then check for the message events and create the icon based off of that. I was just hoping there was a better way now.

Personally I use a combination VFX and and addon called Ora3.

VFX I have to track some specific defensives per character. This is handy since you can also use them through the VFX and not have to choose between having to have individuals binds for each or wasting them by simultaneously using them. It's actually very nice to have a quick visual reference for which toon has what cooldown available. See the picture attached.
Attachment 2091

Ora 3 I use to track all other cooldown that I care about, like DPS cooldowns, stuns, interrupts, etc.

I use Exorsus Raid Tools. Easy to set up, works great even tracking more complicated variable cooldowns like the Holy Word spells on Holy Priests.

I have exactly what you want. I want to track Swiftmend on my Druids (self AND party). I use WeakAuras for it. Use the following (import into WA) and tweak the character names and spell name/id.

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When the spell is ON COOLDOWN display this icon. On the Trigger tab you need to change the Specific Unit value to your party member name(s).