Followership
My work in management consulting has taught me two things: the importance of frameworks and the vocabulary for strategic thinking.
Traditional management consulting is an assembly line for transforming raw talent into strategists. On one end, it recruits the best and brightest minds from leading educational institutions and “utilizes” them on client work where they are recast, molded, and annealed through on-the-job experiences while guided by leaders similarly transformed by the factory.
But if you came in as an experienced hire, you may feel a little blind-sided unless you invest time and effort in realizing the poetry in this process. Once you do, it’s a matter of timing your hop right and jumping onto that conveyor belt.
I was blessed with many young consulting veterans who mentored me and showed me the ropes. It always amazed me how much of their time they were willing to spend walking me through the metrics that matter and sharing their first-hand experiences about what worked and what didn’t work.
Given my age and industry background, I took these learnings and mixed in a dash of my experience. I finessed the process to go beyond my immediate metrics to a higher level of self-actualization. I discovered the joy of giving and sharing my passion for conversational AI with people who had never worked in it. My work in AI and drive to make it accessible to anyone who cared to use it helped me recruit a strong “bench” of people I could turn to when I had a project to staff.
While building this list of people, I was constantly aware of my responsibilities towards them. It was a joy to invest my time in them outside of immediate project work. I hosted practice-wide events and invited people to speak about a product or project so we could learn from it. I hosted a women’s book club and insisted that people did not have to read the book to join the conversation. I spent many happy hours discovering the fantastic people in my extended community and built deep and meaningful relationships with people.
My investments paid off in many beautiful ways. Recalcitrants became converts when my army of conversational AI recruits delivered substantial demos to the C-suite or successfully ran programs for the client and deeply anchored our relationships in trust.
“Building a followership” was the phrase that I added to my strategy vocabulary through this experience. Workplace followership is the active, critical, and committed role of individuals supporting and contributing to a team’s vision and goals. Building a followership fosters a collaborative environment where kindness and empathy become foundational values.
In “Give and Take,” Adam Grant posits that individuals who consistently give and support others without expecting anything often garner deep respect and trust within their communities. This selfless approach not only strengthens followership but also cultivates a culture rooted in kindness and empathy. Such an environment allows both leaders and followers to thrive collaboratively.
“The most meaningful way to succeed is to help other people succeed.” — Adam Grant, Give and Take
As we navigate the complexities of the modern workplace, we must recognize the power of followership. By actively fostering a culture of kindness and empathy, we not only enrich our immediate work environment but also lay the foundation for a legacy of collaboration and mutual respect.
Interested in diving deeper? Click this link to schedule a 30-minute chat with me; I’d love to hear about your experience building a followership.
