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Definition of follower-ship, according to dictionary;
1: following
2: the capacity or willingness to follow a leader
In organizations, “leadership is not just done by the leader, and followership is not just done by followers.” The study of followership is an emerging area within the leadership field that helps explain outcomes.
The different models of followerships, according to analysts.
According to Kelley Moore, effective followers are individuals who are enthusiastic, intelligent, ambitious, and self-reliant. Kelley identified two underlying behavioral dimensions that distinguish types of followers. The first behavioral dimension is the degree to which the individual is an independent, critical thinker. The second dimension is the degree to which the individual is active or passive. Depending on where a person falls on these two dimensions, there are five different follower types:
The Sheep (low independence, passive): These individuals require external motivation and constant supervision.
The Yes-People (low independence, active): These conformists are committed to the leader and the goal (or task) of the organization (or group/team) and will defend adamantly their leader when faced with opposition from others. They do not question the decisions or actions of the leader.
The Pragmatics (average on both dimensions): These individuals are not trail-blazers; they will not stand behind controversial or unique ideas until the majority of the group has expressed their support and often prefer to stay in the background.
The Alienated (high independence, passive): These individuals are negative and often attempt to stall or bring the group down by constantly questioning the decisions and actions of the leader.
The Star Followers (high independence, active): These exemplary followers are positive, active, and independent thinkers. Star followers will not blindly accept the decisions or actions of a leader until they have evaluated them completely but can be trusted to get the job done.
According to Ira Chaleff original model of Courageous Followership proposed four dimensions in which courageous followers operates within a group, and a fifth dimension in which the follower operates either within or outside the group depending on the response of the leadership. The dimensions of courageous followership are:
Assume responsibility: They assume responsibility for themselves and the organization. They do not expect the leader or organization to provide for their security and growth, or need permission to act. Courageous followers discover and create opportunities to fulfill their potential and maximize their value to the organization. They initiate values-based action to improve the organization’s external activities and its internal processes.
To serve: Courageous followers are unafraid of the hard work required to serve a leader. They assume new or additional responsibilities, stay alert for areas in which their strengths complement the leader’s, and assert themselves in these areas. Courageous followers stand up for their leader and the tough decisions a leader must make if the organization is to achieve its purpose. They are as passionate as the leader in pursuing the common purpose.
To challenge: Courageous followers give voice to the discomfort they feel when the behaviors or policies of the leader or group conflict with their sense of what is right. They are willing to stand up, to stand out, to risk rejection, to initiate conflict in order to examine the actions of the leader and group when appropriate. They are willing to deal with the emotions their challenge evokes in the leader and group. Courageous followers value organizational harmony and their relationship with the leader, but not at the expense of the common purpose and their integrity.
To participate in transformation: Courageous followers champion the need for change and stay with the leader and group while they mutually struggle with the difficulty of real change. They examine their own need for transformation and become full participants in the change process as appropriate.
To take moral action: Courageous followers know when it is time to take a stand that is different than that of the leader’s The stand may involve refusing to obey a direct order, appealing the order to the next level of authority, or tendering one’s resignation. These and other forms of moral action involve personal risk, but service to the common purpose justifies and sometimes demands acting. If attempts to redress the morally objectionable situation fail, a follower faces the more difficult prospect of whether to become a whistle blower.
Barbara Kellerman categorized followers as isolates, bystanders, participants, activists, and diehards based on their level of engagement in the leadership process.
Isolates: Isolates are completely detached. They do not care about their leaders, know anything about them, or respond to them in any way. Their alienation is, nevertheless, of consequence.
Bystanders: Bystanders observe but do not participate. They make a deliberate decision to stand aside, to disengage from their leaders and from whatever is the group dynamic.
Participants: Participants are engaged in some way. They either clearly favor or oppose their leaders, groups, and organizations of which they are members. In either case, they invest resources to try and make an impact.
Activists: Activists feel strongly about their leaders and act accordingly. They are eager, energetic, and engaged. Because they are heavily invested in people and processes, they work hard either on behalf of their leaders or to undermine and even unseat them.
Diehards: Diehards are, as their name implies, prepared to die if necessary for their cause, whether it is an individual, an idea, or both. Diehards are deeply devoted to their leaders; or, in contrast, they are ready to remove them from positions of power, authority, and influence by any means necessary. In either case, Diehards are defined by their dedication including their willingness to risk life and limb. Being a Diehard is all-consuming.
According to Hurwitz the Generative Partnership Model comprises five guiding principles, five skill pairings, and an array of associated behaviors. The guiding principles are at the core of every partnership, team, and organization, providing a framework on which the skills are used. The skills come in matched pairs: each of the five skill pairings involves a multitude of associated behaviors. The behaviors could be considered best practice, but are better considered adaptive and adaptable.
Hurwitz Hurwitz described these five skills of good followership:
Decision advocating: Adding value to decision making when it is not your decision to make.
Peak performing: Taking initiative for your own engagement, development, and on-the-job performance.
Organizational agility: Aligning and thriving within the broader organization including being able to adapt to the norms of different subunits.
Dashboard communicating: Keeping your partner well informed and stimulating the right leadership action.
Relationship building: Developing rapport, trust, and an understanding of how to work best with leadership
The five complementary areas of leadership skill are:
Decision framing: Creating an environment and process that optimizes collaboration and decision quality.
Performance coaching: Ensuring an environment of purpose, progress, and positivity.
Organizational mentoring: Helping to guide others on how best to navigate and operate organizationally.
Cascade communicating: Keeping team members informed and stimulating the right followership initiative.
Relationship framing: Creating a comfortable, professional, equitable environment for each team member.
According to Boas Shamir looks at the different types of leader-follower theoretical perspectives rather than developing a specific model of positive followership.
Followers as recipients of leadership: A leader’s behavior (e.g., articulating a vision, setting a personal example, intellectual stimulation) affects followers’ attitudes and behaviors such as commitment to the organization, or exerting extra effort at work. According to this view followers do not play an active role in the leadership process.
Followers as moderators of leadership impact: the leader’s influence on the followers’ attitudes and performances depends on the followers’ characteristics.
Followers as substitutes for leadership: There are certain conditions that can neutralize or negate the need for leadership. The theory emphasizes followers’ training, experience, and job related knowledge.
Followers as constructors of leadership: A much more central and explicit role is given to followers in theories that present leadership as cognitively or socially constructed by followers.
Followers as leaders – shared leadership: This perspective questions the usefulness of the distinction between leaders and followers.
What does it mean to be a follower?
a person who follows another in regard to his or her ideas or belief; disciple or adherent. a person who imitates, copies, or takes as a model or ideal: He was little more than a follower of current modes.
Who are the good followers?
Being a good follower means having the courage to dissent if you think your leader, manager, or superior, is doing something wrong-headed, according to Kellerman who says. … “Being a good follower is complicated in ways that are rather similar to being a good leader. It means being engaged. It means paying attention.
Who is an effective follower?
According to Robert E. Kelley, a prominent social scientist in followership studies, “What distinguishes an effective from an ineffective follower is enthusiastic, intelligent, and self-reliant participation.
The role of a follower in leadership
The Role Of Follower in Leadership. … And yet, followers provide valuable supports to leaders. They listen, reflect, comply, question and legitimize the leader. The amount of influence followers have on leaders shows up in organizational policies, communication methods and the workplace environment.
Ways of being a good follower that makes you a better leader
The relationship between leaders and followers seems pretty straightforward: Leaders lead. Followers follow.
But Barbara Kellerman, a leadership lecturer at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government author of Followership: How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders, says that significant shifts in technology and culture have changed that dynamic, giving followers more power. And there’s a lot you can learn about being a good leader by learning to be a good follower.
followers can “make or break” the leader influencing if and how goals are accomplished
“[Good followers] support and aid the leader when he or she is doing the right thing, and stand up to the leader–having the courage to let the leader know when he or she is doing something wrong or headed in the wrong direction,” says Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., associate dean of the faculty at the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California.
Being a good follower doesn’t make you a “sheep,” Kellerman says. The truth is that most of us are in followership roles regularly, perhaps in our families, social circles, religions, or other settings. Here are five skills you learn as a good follower that make you a better leader.
Awareness
Today, leaders need to be aware of various audiences including colleagues, coworkers, customers, board members, and the public at large. As a leader, you need to be aware of what it takes to “bring them along.”
Being a follower teaches you how to be aware of the needs of other people as well as their potential to “make my life hell from one second to the next,” she says. Good followers learn to read people and understand what upsets and motivates them.
Diplomacy.
When good followers encounter a co-worker with rabid political beliefs or a disagreeable manager, they’re probably not going to fight every battle, Kellerman says. Playing the part of the follower is easier, simpler, and often less risky.
Good followers learn how to get along with those who have differences while not ignoring those differences. That’s an important leadership trait, too, because a leader or manager can’t afford to be oblivious to the attitudes of those around him or her, Kellerman says.
Courage.
Being a good follower means having the courage to dissent if you think your leader, manager, or superior, is doing something wrong-headed, Kellerman says. That’s not always easy, but it requires the guts and strength of conviction that are essential to good leadership, Kellerman says.
“Being a good follower is complicated in ways that are rather similar to being a good leader. It means being engaged. It means paying attention. It means having the courage to speak up when something’s wrong and it means having the energy and activism to support a leader or manager who’s doing things wisely and well,” she says.
Collaboration.
In many ways, followers can “make or break” the leader influencing if and how goals are accomplished, Riggio says. In many business sectors, followers are the ones who are doing much of the creative work, although the leader may get most of the credit. Leaders who have been good followers understand how to work with people to bring out the best in them.
“Did Steve Jobs really create the iPod and iPhone, or was it the creative collective of team members at Apple? Today, leaders may be evaluated not only by how much is produced or achieved, but by the quality of the team or organization and its members,” he says.
Critical Thinking.
In order to be a good follower, you need to be able to think for yourself. Riggio says the best followers support and aid the leader when he or she is doing the right thing, and stand up to the leader when he or she is headed in the wrong direction.
“Many of the same qualities that we admire in leaders–competence, motivation, intelligence–are the same qualities that we want in the very best followers. Moreover, leaders, regardless of their level, also need to follow,” he says.
– Comrade Danfulani Ohinoyi Lukman
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