How Mantel Group became a Great Place to Work — Part 3 of 4

The Importance of Followership

Preamble

This is the third in a series of four articles that describe the approach and philosophies that underpin the organisational culture at Mantel Group. We’re proud of the team that we’ve built over the last 4+ years and hope that by reading these articles you gain insight and inspiration for the evolution of your own organisation.

Released over a four-week period, the articles will cover the following topics:

• Part 1 — How “Reinventing” the organisation created strong foundations
• Part 2 — The importance of a holistic approach to Culture and Values
• Part 3 — The importance of Followership (this article)
• Part 4 — The Importance of Leadership

The importance of Followership

“The difference between followers and leaders is that followers need leaders to help them follow what leaders themselves are following. This relationship takes the form of a shared response-ability to a shared calling. Both find each other in a true fellowship to create the world responsibly.”

— James Maroosis

Followership is more recently being recognised as being just as important as leadership. Followership is defined as the willingness to cooperate in the accomplishment of a shared goal, to demonstrate the ability to work as a team and to build cohesion among the rest of the organisation.

Effective followership is essential to effective leadership, and it is important to realise that being a good follower is sometimes more difficult than leading. Good followers make an impact in an organisation as they are often in a better position to recognise day-to-day events and make tactical decisions. Their ability, as a collective to enhance organisational potential, should not be underestimated.

In the past, in many organisations followership meant keeping your head down, doing an honest day’s work, and doing what you were told to do. Managers had all the formal authority and power. This is the type of followership expected in Orange organisations and is not the reality in many organisations today.

Nowadays many employees aspire to work in organisations that include Teal characteristics. They want meaningful work, to be treated with dignity and respect, and to be comfortable bringing their whole self to work. These changes are widespread and are visible in even the most traditional organisations such as the military and religious institutions.

Understanding the followership model in your organisation is important because everyone is a follower at one time or another. Indeed, most team members, including those in positions of authority, have some kind of leader themselves. In reality, most team members spend more time as followers than leaders.

Understanding the followership style that best suits your organisation

You can use the top-left (What I experience) and top-right (What I do) quadrants on the Reinventing Organisations Map to understand the followership behaviours that will best support your organisation.

This information can then be mapped against the behaviours and actions that you are looking for from the followers in your company. A good starting point is to look at one of the following popular followership models:

• Kelley’s Effective Follower Model categorises followers on their level of engagement and critical thinking.
• Ira Chaleff’s model (the “Courageous Followership model”) categorises followers based on the extent to which they support leaders and how much they challenge them.
• Barbara Kellerman’s model categorises followership mainly on their level of engagement but provides a view that extends beyond organisational boundaries.

For example, a Green organisation should look to inspire followers to build community through consensus and empathy. They should avoid a followership style that reinforces rank or hierarchy, blind loyalty to management or fear of failure.

Our Followership Style at Mantel Group

“Followers and leaders both orbit around the purpose; followers do not orbit around the leader.”

— Ira Chaleff

Of the three followership models above, Chaleff’s Courageous Leadership model has the strongest parallels with our principles and also closely aligns with Laloux’s organisational model as follows:

• Resource style (quadrant IV) — demonstrates low support and low challenge of leadership. They are often found and encouraged in Red organisations.
• Individualist style (quadrant III) — exhibits low support and high challenge. This follower will speak up but typically takes a position opposed to the majority. They are often found and encouraged in Orange organisations.
• Implementer style (quadrant II) — exhibits high support and low challenge. They are often found and flourish in Amber organisations
• Partner style (quadrant I) — shows high support and high challenge. They take full responsibility for their actions. They are better aligned with Green/Teal organisations.

Looking further, there’s also a direct link between the 5 dimensions of Courageous Leadership and Mantel’s 5 Principles as follows:

As a result, we’ve encouraged behaviours in our team that are consistent with the Partner Style of followership as it closely aligns with our principles and the Green/Teal ideals of Mantel Group.

What’s Next

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article stay tuned for the last one in this four-part series:

• Part 4 — The Importance of Leadership (to be released 26th of September)