A Different Way of Looking at the Leadership Environment
Anybody Here Want to be a Follower?
Article 3 in a Series
By Two Guys From Stillwater, Minnesota
John Buettner and Bob Molenda
Followers! It’s not what you think. It’s not what you do when you click on the button for “Follower” on this story. It is close, but it is not the same as being one of someone’s 2000 “Followers” or “Likes”, on Face Book or Twitter.
It is not even the same as when Indiana Jones jumps into your taxicab and says, “Follow that Green Car!” For one thing, there is no “Vision” given to a follower in the case of pushing that button or being yelled at by Indiana Jones. In this case, there is no leader, no habit of leadership, no criteria, zip, nada!
Getting back to the button, there are no specific requirements for the “follower” or who is being “followed” when you push that button. There is no choice by the Leader (author) if you push that button, no guarantee of ethics, courage, honesty, integrity, accountability or behavior toward you or from anyone you choose to “follow”. What is cool is that there is no special behavior expected of you when your finger touches that sensitive part of your smart phone or when you click on the screen. In a way, it is probably the ideal form of true democracy in action. You are Free, to push that button for any reason that your creative mind may come up with. You can even Unfollow someone or Unfriend people. It seems to us that these buttons wield a lot of power and we have not even gotten into the subject of being a follower in a cult or a gang and figuring out what the differences are, but “We Digress!“
Sometimes knowing what something is not is more valuable than knowing what it is!
Attention, those of you who have been digressed! We were talking about a different kind of “Follower!” This is the kind that works with Leaders to get something done.
These are the kind that have expectations in front of them and are led by someone. Sometimes we and they are not very free about what their mission is and sometimes neither gets to choose who the leader or followers are. Ethics are involved, everyone is not necessarily “Free” to choose to be a “Follower”, and sometimes the Leader is a Boss, sometimes good, sometimes marginal. You might observe that some followers you have known are not good team players, others would have made great leaders. Is it any wonder why there might be confusion about following things in 2024?
Followership refers to the behavior of individuals who are guided and supported by a leader. It emphasizes the qualities and behaviors of good followers in an organizational or group setting. This concept underscores that effective leadership is not just about the leader’s individual capabilities but also about the individual capabilities of followers and how they contribute to the dynamics of the team.
If a job or mission is complex, multi-facetted, expensive and time sensitive, it is next to impossible that the job can be done properly by one person. A team needs to be formed. Overall responsibility of getting the job done belongs to the leader. Support and expertise of getting the required tasks done properly belongs to the followers. Good followership requires active engagement, competence, loyalty, courage, integrity and collaboration. Have you noticed that some of these characteristics are the same as expected of a leader?
Understanding and fostering good followership can enhance overall team effectiveness, improve organizational culture, and lead to more successful leadership outcomes. The legacy of great leadership and great followership creates organization culture. It is possibly the most important value for an enterprise to have. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” is a famous quote from legendary management consultant and writer, Peter Drucker.
Who wants to be a follower? All the universities have courses on how to be a Leader, but nobody ever signs up for a course on how to Follow anything. You might say that this is a pretty strong message about not making a career out of being a follower. We looked and we looked, but there never was a course that was entitled “Followership 101” at our schools. Last time we talked to HR, there was no position or pay grade for a job entitled “Follower F4 Specialist” or “Senior Follower”. It seems logical that there are more followers than there are leaders, so where is the missing piece to this puzzle? Just a crazy thought, “Could any of us become a Leader in Followership? ” You heard it first, here! Better yet, how about being the Leader of the Institute for Followership?
Let’s think about this for a few minutes. Somehow, you were picked as a team member for a project. That means that someone needed you for something, probably a skill, talent or characteristic that was part of the mission of the team. What do you think are the characteristics of a good “Follower”? We have all worked as followers. When you really think about it, even the Leaders work as Followers on other projects. Away from the job, you might be a volunteer for a charitable project, you might be a volunteer fireman, you might be a parent, husband, wife alternating between being a Leader and a Follower. Sometimes, we might not even know we are one or the other! You might even be an actor or actress in a locally produced play or musical production. All are Followers! Do you have to participate in a mission that has unethical outcomes or tactics as a Follower?
The reality is that “We Are All Followers!” Get Over It!
One of the best definitions of a “Follower” comes from the Civil Air Patrol Professional Development website. It defines followership as reaching a specific goal while exercising respect for authority, a positive attitude, integrity and self-discipline. Followers act with intelligence, independence, courage and a sense of ethics. They are members of a team that is led to accomplish a mission of importance to the enterprise. Followers have skill sets in different areas that contribute to meeting the mission goals. Sometimes these skill sets are learned or developed while working on the mission. Loyalty to the mission, the members of the team and its leader are also attributes of a good follower.
There is very little known about Followership compared to Leadership. There are more followers than there are Leaders and the interactions between followers can determine the difference between Mission success or failure. There are good followers and marginal followers, just as there are good and poor leaders. According to the Civil Air Patrol, there are more than 134 books and articles published about Leadership for every single book or article on Followership. If followership is poor, accomplishment of the mission will be in jeopardy. Considering how important it is, it should get better press from everyone. This article is our little effort to give Followership some badly needed recognition. There are a lot of them out there, so next time you see a follower, give them a little smile and say “Thank You” from all of us.
A listing of Followership Characteristics appears below: Most of the characteristics fall into the Mission-Oriented Category, however there are personal characteristics that are the same as those of good leaders. There is much wisdom to suggest that a prerequisite for being a good leader is to be a good follower. In most cases, we are both leaders and followers in our daily life activity and it never ends.
Here is another source that can help us understand Good Followers (John McCallum). Do some of the Follower Characteristics you identified show similarities to those listed above? Do you think that some of the characteristics of Good Followers are the same as the characteristics of Good Leaders?
Oh Yes, we almost forgot. Follower(s) are part of our Simple Triangle from our last article. They’re Essential! We should have a national followers day.
Go ahead Leaders, and bring them a beer and a pizza once in awhile. See to it that they have everything they need, train them, make sure they grow, serve them well, take care of them because we really need their insight and contributions. Tell them that John and Bob sent you.
You can click on the Follower button if you like. It will not give you a follower. It will not give you a leader. It could make you a stakeholder.
Previous Articles: A Different Way of Looking at Leadership
Links
Article 1: Picking Fresh, Ripe Leaders
Article 2: Looking for the Leadership Button
Next Time: Article 4
