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Email ThisThese days, talk of leadership is everywhere. We can’t get enough of it. Leadership in business, leadership in teams, leadership in organizations, leadership at home. Everyone, it seems, wants to know how to be a leader.
It’s the ultimate goal for the career-oriented individual. To become a thought leader, it seems, is the surest way to the top in a world where career paths are dead. And to become an organizational leader may be the next best thing, in the places where hierarchy still exist.
But there’s a flipside to the concept of leadership that its very essence demands. Leadership demands followers. Some of the most important quotes about leadership frame it exclusively in the concept of followship. All of the best definitions do.
But guess what? There doesn’t seem to be much buzz about being a good follower. There are over 25 times as many books on leadership as there are on followship. A Google search reveals 43,300 hits for that term, while leadership gets a whopping 174,000,000. In fact, followship isn’t even a defined word.
In fact, most everything written on followship focuses on one niche - spirituality. This makes sense when you consider that most spiritual people consider being a follower of a person, an organization or system of beliefs to be a critical part of their lives.
That said, there are still profoundly more things written even in this niche about leadership than followship. And hardly any literature at all focuses on followship in the workplace, at home, in our personal lives, and in our careers.
This might be because in our independent society, we don’t really care about what it takes to be a good follower. In fact, most of the time, the idea of being a follower is framed negatively. How many times have you seen people be rewarded for excellent followship? A highly lauded episode in last season’s 30 Rock showed Tina Fey’s character ashamedly receiving a followship award. Liz Lemon lamented that the $10,000 prize didn’t highlight her leadership instead. And most of us would probably feel the same in a similar situation.
We seem to think, collectively, functionally, that followers are just blind sheep, and though we may not say it out loud, it’s in the tone of our voice and the look in our eye when we say the word. Say it out loud, in a sentence, and listen to how you sound. “She’s a follower.”
Let’s just be honest, most of us think that “followers” just aren’t thoughtful, creative, ambitious, capable or admirable.
And that’s a problem. Because that’s simply not true. In fact, being a good follower is just as challenging, admirable and important a capability as leadership.
We extol the virtue of leadership so much, we’ve even had to create terms like self-leadership in order to make followship more palatable. Don’t get me wrong, I think leadership is a valuable attribute, and I truly believe every person has areas of their life in which they are called to be leaders. And self-leadership is a great concept, too, especially if it’s helping people realize the value of knowing how to follow. Because no matter how much of a leader you are, every person can benefit from being a world-class follower.
The truth is, you can’t really be a good leader unless you can be a good follower first. That’s because great leaders put other people’s success ahead of their own goals. They add value to people. They reject the idea that they must take down everyone in their path. They build relationships that are mutually beneficial and based on respect and authenticity. And they don’t just know how to do these things, they practice them by practicing great followship.
Whether it’s following a system to help you work better, seeking out a mentor within your field or industry, following the advice of parents or experts, or putting yourself as a leader under the authority of other successful people, followship can make you a better business owner, employee, friend, advocate, mentor, student - and leader.
Reject the idea that only leadership is admirable. Find the power in the art of followship. It’s time.
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This falls into the old question of a company calling asking “We want a leadership training. We want all of our people to be leaders.” the consultant asks, “if they are all leaders did you think who they will lead, all leaders equal no followers.”
This empowerment leadership concept is rapid in corporate america.
I enjoyed you wrote about spirituality - I feel that a well centered and spirtiual idividual is a leader of them selves as well as a follower of their belie.
Tiffany,
You mention in this post some of the qualities necessary for a leader. However I didn’t see anything mentioned here for what it takes to be a good follower. I would be interested in your thoughts on this point. Also I would like to add that I think we are all both leaders and followers with the differences between us in the percentages of each role and dependent on the situation at hand.
The best leaders know when it is time to follow.
Great post Tiffany. I have a feeling that all those great leaders who are writing books and giving speeches on the topic, spent a ton of time learning how to follow a great leader.
I think a large part of being a great follower is to study what the leaders are doing so you can 1. Understand how to best follow and work for your particular leader, and 2. To learn how you can be a great leader when your time comes.
Leadership can only come with experience and a ton of self knowledge. You have to first follow before you can lead.
I’m a follower. Always have been, probably always will be. Here are my rules to being a good follower:
1. Question your leader. Blind faith is bad. You can accept that a leader may know better, but never be afraid to question your leader (under appropriate circumstances and with all due respect).
2. Support your leader - within reason. Try to go to your leader with possible solutions, rather than just problems. Recognize that you are not his only responsibility and try to simplify your demands on his time. But don’t let him take advantage of you. It’s his responsibility to lead - don’t let him delegate all his resposibilities upon you.
3. Do your job. You rely upon your leader to lead. He relies upon you to do you job without constant monitoring. Don’t slack off or take advantage of his trust.
All this emphasis on leadership tends to pose another problem. Far too many chiefs, not enough indians.
The previous commenters make some good points. I would be interested in knowing what you think it takes to make a good follower. But I think paying attention to your leaders - their style, their thought process, their actions, is definitely a good start. I would think a good follower, by doing those things, could adapt and work successfully with various kinds of leaders.
AJ also makes a good point - the best leaders know when to follow.
Tiffany,
You raise a good point here. Coincidentally, I write a leadership blog and am currently working on a leadership book for Millenials. (8 Rules For Tomorrow’s Top Leaders)
I would like to add three points from my perspective:
1. To become a successful leader others have to want you to be. Which mean that you have to have a great supporting cast.
2. Great Leaders make great followers, because they understand how/when to lead and how/when to follow.
3. When you have a team of leaders who understand how to lead and follow, the leadership model would resemble a Cog Wheel. The person who has the most knowledge or best ability to handle the challenge assumes the responsibility of leader and the others support. When the challenge shifts the wheel turns and the next person assumes leader. It makes for a very effective team.
What do you think?
@ Michael - Nail on head with this comment. There does seem to be a disconnect with the overemphasis on leadership in corporate America. If we are teaching everyone to lead (in the traditional sense), who are we expecting to follow them? The other problem ignoring the importance of followship creates is an awkward competitive environment. And that’s sort of funny, since another critial buzzword in corporate America is “Team.” And I don’t have to repeat the adage about what letter is missing from that word.
@Mark - I’m glad you asked. Followship is something I’m wanting to focus on more as a concept of Personal PR and relationship-building, so I will be writing more on this, definitely.
@ AJ - This is so true. Everyone, no matter how great a leader, is a follower in some way.
@ Ryan - This is such an important point, because it emphasizes the idea that being a follower has intrinsic personal value. Being a great follower doens’t just make the leader look great, it teaches you so much - about being a leader, about yourself, sometimes, about humility. You need to know all these things to be a great leader.
@ Scott - I like these rules a lot. They demonstrate that both leadership and followship are relational processes: You can’t lead in a vaccum, but you can’t follow in one either. Both parities have to be participating for the best results.
@ jrandom42 - It’s an interesting sort of pattern, isn’t it?
@ Alaia - You bring up a great point that as a follower, it’s up to you to be in tune with your leader and not just expect them to be the only one proactive. This is a big misconception -that great followship isn’t proactive. Just because someone is the leader doesn’t mean that everyone isn’t responsible for taking action, right?
@ James - It’s interesting that you bring up the point of leadership within teams. I think one things that’s a challenge for our generation in the workforce right now is the desire/feeling that your age or experience negate you from having a true leadership role in the corporate world, because it’s still so hierarchical. So we want models like these to work.
But in so many cases, leadership is vested in terms of authority and seniority in organizations, so it’s hard to see these things happening in the real world. So the people with the most knowledge or skill aren’t always the ones in a leadership role, in a traditional sense.
But when you realize the importance of followship in the equation, these models you are proposing start to make more sense and become more plausible.
Tiffany,
You are right. The idea of corporate life leadership is based on seniority or authority, and those with a ‘title’ are the leader.
However, you don’t need a title to be a leader. (Mark Sanborn wrote a great book under the same title) And, a good Millennial who understands leadership, knows they can have an influence on the ‘titled’ leaders; despite age or experience. That really is what leadership is by definition: The ablitiy to influence others. Nothing More Nothing Less. it just takes a little creativity to gain the ability to influence them.
Having a title does not mean that you are a good leader, and not having a title does not mean you cannot be a leader. Many times we see someone with senority given titled leadership roles. And if you are a good ‘Follower’ you will respect their authority and decisions. This will inturn gain you their respect, and with their respect the ability to influence them, the decisions, gain experience, and become a leader.
The best thing a Millennial can do is throw out the notion that age and experience make you a leader and look for ways to influence the ‘titled’ leaders. Be creative.
It may take some time to change the model, but I believe that when millenials become ‘titled’ leaders the model can change.
One point I did not mention before is I really agree with your statement that Leaders serve the ones they follow. Lao Tzu once said, “To lead others walk behind them.”
@ James - I totally agree that you don’t need a title to be a leader. That’s 100% true. And actually, you don’t have to be a leader to have a title.
The lines blur a little when you think about what it takes to be a leader. You mention the definition of the ability to influence people. This implies power, and it’s my favorite definition of leadership. But what’s the flipside on that for the definition of followship? The ability to be influenced? I’m not sure that’s exactly correct, because the interesting thing is that even in great followship, there is autonomy at the individual level….
I actually think that’s why this conversation is important. To pull followship into the limelight and discuss what it really is, define how it operates, and celebrate its power.
This comment stream is really interesting to me, because even in my attempt to try to isolate and describe the function of followship, we can’t help but interject leadership into the mix in a way that makes it seem to be the preferred trait or skill.
Great post & comments,
I completely agree with jrandom42, sometimes there are just too many assigned leaders in one place. I have seen big project that have PM & worker have a almost 1 to 1 ratio, at the end the project just got delayed & delayed.
If to lead is an action, then what do leader do at times that they are not leading? Wouldn’t they be getting thing done or following-up? Does that mean leadership & followship are intertwined?
Or
am I just confused?
Here’s the big question in my mind:
when everyone is striving to lead, who decides who leads, in the absence of a formal declaration of the leader?
And what happens with all those who are not chosen?
To me, this kind of situation is ripe for confrontation, sabotage and insurrection. Not good for the bottom line at all.
@ Ian @ Jrandom - I think you guys are getting right at the heart of the matter and why this discussion is so important for us to start. It causes a lot of confusion and sets the stage for all sorts of undesirable things to have an all-leadership mentality/emphasis - silos, office politics, etc.
Because there’s not enough value placed on followship, we see all these unhealthy things in the corporate world.
But in a world where followers are valued and there’s a cooperative continuium between leadership and followship, it’s just more healthy and productive for everyone. When followers are empowered and equipped with knowledge of their own power, it’s an amazing thing.