Followership in Leadership: The Role It Plays
Effective leadership in an organization is essential, but if teams are unable to carry out the vision, even the best leaders will not be able to meet their goals. This is why followership is a critical role that is often overlooked in an organization. There are many resources dedicated to identifying potential leaders and grooming them to ascend in the organization, but what about followers?
Whether an organization or project will succeed or fail depends in part on the actions and behaviors of followers. Just as an individual in a position of leadership is not necessarily a good leader, not all employees have the skills to be effective followers. Understanding the traits of a good follower will help all individuals play that role when necessary, and also help leaders cultivate good followership.
Leadership and followership are two sides of the same coin, each essential for organizational success. Here’s how leaders can foster followership:
- Empowerment: Create an environment where team members feel empowered to contribute their best. Encourage initiative and value diverse perspectives.
- Communication: Open and honest communication builds trust and commitment. Listen actively and encourage input.
- Support and Development: Provide support and opportunities for development to ensure team members feel valued and engaged, leading to higher productivity.
- Shared Vision: Align the team around a shared vision and goals to foster a sense of ownership and accountability.
In my experience, when leaders focus on these areas, they unlock the full potential of their teams, driving transformation and growth. This synergy between leadership and followership is essential for any organization aiming to thrive. By adapting communication to fit the audience and ensuring mutual gain, leaders can effectively guide their teams. It’s about crafting messages that resonate, ensuring clarity, and fostering an environment where everyone feels their contributions matter. This approach not only enhances team dynamics but also ensures that everyone is moving in the same direction, achieving common goals.
What Is Followership?
Followership is about individuals in a group working together to support a leader in achieving the group’s goals. Good followers voice honest opinions, contribute to discussions, and support the leader’s final decisions both publicly and privately. They work consistently and enthusiastically towards the group’s objectives. Being a good follower is also considered great training for becoming a good leader.
Followership and Servant Leadership: A Shared Ethos
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy in which the primary goal of the leader is to serve others. This approach flips the traditional leadership model by prioritizing the needs of team members and the community. A servant leader focuses on empowering and uplifting those they lead, fostering an environment where everyone can contribute to their fullest potential.
Servant leadership and followership are rooted in the same core principle: service to others. While servant leaders prioritize the needs of their team, effective followers contribute by supporting the leader’s mission with dedication, honesty, and collaboration. Both roles require humility, active engagement, and a willingness to put the group’s goals above personal ambition.
The Role of Followers
The role of a follower is not a simple one. It doesn’t just mean following directions or blindly accepting everything a leader says. Good followership is characterized by active participation in the pursuit of organizational goals. In many cases, this means working independently, being accountable for your actions, and taking ownership of necessary tasks.
The catch is that it’s common for followers to not be recognized for their accomplishments in these areas, even though they are essential to the success of the organization. Although it can feel like a thankless role, many followers take great satisfaction in the work they do and embrace followership. An individual might relish being a follower because they:
- Enjoy participating in a team
- Want to deeply understand the leadership role that they someday might step into
- Prefer to step back from leadership in some contexts
- Understand the value of their contributions to the overall success of the organization
Regardless of the motivation, a good follower sees that their role is indeed essential, and good leaders should gain a clear understanding of the role of followers as well.
Understanding the Types of Followers
A researcher at Harvard Business Review developed a system for categorizing followers using two metrics: 1) active versus passive, and 2) independent critical thinking versus dependent uncritical thinking. Based on where an individual falls on each spectrum, there are five categories of followers:
Survivors: Right in the middle of the scale, these people are adept at surviving change. They are able to adapt and conform to the situations around them, whether this means stepping up to take on an important task or quietly staying in the background.
Sheep: These are passive people who do not think critically and do not have a strong sense of responsibility.
Yes People: Yes people are those who will readily act when told what to do but depend heavily on leaders for guidance. They do not tend to be proactive.
Alienated Followers: These are independent critical thinkers who are not proactive in their roles. They can effectively carry out their roles, but there is often an undertone of dissatisfaction that prevents them from fully embracing their work and contributing to their fullest potential.
Effective Followers: These are independent critical thinkers who follow through enthusiastically. Effective followers can succeed without leadership but respond to it well, making them ideal independent employees who also work well in teams.
Developing Effective Followers
An organization with effective followers often performs well because employees are driven self-starters who are motivated to support organizational goals and have the critical thinking skills to do so. To develop effective followers, an organization must:
Understand Leader and Follower Roles: Recognize that leaders need followers to carry out organizational initiatives, and ensure that leaders understand that the role of a follower is just as important as their own. These roles can be conveyed through training and modeling behavior when leaders are acting in the role of follower.
Teach Followership Skills: Don’t assume that people inherently know how to effectively follow. Teach them the necessary skills, such as accountability, self-management, and analytical thinking. This type of training can be done through coaching, mentoring, and experiential learning.
Include Followership in Performance Evaluations: Employees need feedback to improve their followership skills, and evaluating these skills during performance reviews highlights the importance of the role. Most reviews focus on leadership, but if you also shine a spotlight on followership, this will prompt employees to think about how they can also improve as a follower.
Create a Structure That Supports Followership: When creating teams, think about how you can incorporate the concept of followership. This might include creating small committees with no clear leader, rotating leadership positions on a team, delegating tasks to lower-level employees, or rewarding followers who take on an active role in a project and are vital to its success.
What Great Leaders and Followers Have in Common
Effective servant leaders and followers share several key traits that contribute to the success of their teams and organizations; they simply express them in different ways. These traits form the backbone of effective group dynamics and contribute to the overall success of the organization:
Both servant leaders and followers can develop the traits necessary for success by focusing on a few key areas:
- Clarity and Communication: Ensure there is clear communication about expectations and goals. This helps everyone understand their role and how they contribute to the bigger picture.
- Support and Encouragement: Provide ongoing support and encouragement. This means being there to coach, mentor, and offer guidance when needed, but also allowing room for individuals to take initiative and grow.
- Personal Development: Encourage continuous learning and development. This can be through formal training, mentoring, or simply providing access to resources that enhance skills and knowledge.
- Trust and Responsibility: Build trust by showing confidence in others’ abilities and holding them accountable. Trust is foundational to any successful team or organization.
- Recognition and Celebration: Recognize and celebrate achievements, both big and small. This not only boosts morale but also reinforces positive behaviors and contributions.
- Collaboration and Teamwork: Foster a collaborative environment where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute. This involves listening to others, valuing diverse perspectives, and working together towards common goals.
By focusing on these areas, both leaders and followers can create a positive and productive environment that drives success for the team and the organization.
Conclusion: Followership Is Important to a Leader's Success
It’s important to recognize that a follower is a role and not necessarily an individual. It is often the case that an employee who excels at followership is also an excellent leader. Identifying and cultivating followers is just as important as developing strong leaders and can even be the early stages of leadership development.
