If You're Just Reading Leadership Books, You're Only Halfway There!
Have you ever found yourself gathered together with family during the Christmas holidays, with lots of tinsel, twinkling lights, and little children excitedly ripping into their presents? At one point, one of the kids does something precocious and a parent proudly exclaims, “That’s my kid…a natural born follower!” No? Of course you haven’t. Nobody says that. Ever. Instead, you heard: “That’s my kid…a natural born leader!”
For all of the books, videos, coaching, and leadership development that are invested each and every year into improving the competencies and qualities of leaders, one could argue that we are seeing precious little return on the investments. In fact, it seems that examples of poor (if not downright toxic) leadership are everywhere! Why is that? There are plenty of reasons, but one that isn’t often realized is that leaders are only part of the equation that makes up successful organizations. There is another important element that usually is overlooked: the followers. Now, before that word causes you to flinch, please permit us to explain.
Over the past decade, we have taught in all manner of organizational leadership programs, from bachelors and master's to doctoral. Students have many reasons for pursuing degrees in the discipline of leadership, often because they themselves are leaders and simply want to better understand how to lead well. Yet, over all these years in all of those programs, when asked how many would be enrolled in their programs if they were called organizational followership, not one student has raised a hand. Not one.
The reason for that is largely centered around the stigma that our society has attributed to the idea of a follower. Typically, when the word is used, the intention is to depict someone who is passive, unmotivated or disengaged. In many respects, the image of a follower is pejorative, reflective of a less-than-desirable personality type. In the discipline of leadership, however, the follower is largely defined as a ROLE. Think about that for a second. Once a follower is viewed through the lens of fulfilling a valuable role in an organization, a role that is every bit as important as the role of a leader, everything changes! There’s a common saying among many leadership authors: “Leaders and followers are two sides of the same coin.” You simply cannot have one without the other.
When the follower is viewed as a role, the very nature of the function changes because with roles come responsibilities. Just as leaders are expected to fulfill certain responsibilities, so too are followers. One of the real gems in all of this that few people understand is that most of the necessary competencies and skills needed to be a good leader are also necessary to be a good follower!
There are two additional elements, however, that we also must consider. One is that nothing happens outside of a context. By that, we mean the organization, its culture, and even the regional and national culture in which the organization operates. The roles of leader and follower always occur within some sort of structure, like a business, a school, a church, etc. Finally, but no less important, is the effectiveness of the organization. This depends heavily upon a shared common purpose toward which leaders and followers strive. We refer to this as “purposeship,” the deliberate and emergent process by which leaders and followers mutually engage and influence one another to achieve their common goals.
When we put all of this together, we no longer are talking just about leadership. Leadership does not happen in a vacuum. Instead, we have a leadership system:
Leader + Follower + Context + Common Purpose = Leadership System
Within the actual life of an organization, distinguishing among leaders and followers as well as the leadership and followership processes is difficult to observe. Everything is happening all at once. The simple lines of hierarchy or rank-based formulation in a traditional model rarely reflect reality on a daily basis.
Here’s another little insight: leaders aren’t always leaders. Sometimes they, too, function as followers. The same person can be a leader in one instance and a follower in the next. Roles can and do shift from moment to moment; leadership and followership processes happen simultaneously. Can you think of anyone who is always a leader but never a follower? (Betcha can’t!) CEOs report to boards. Boards are accountable to stockholders. Get the idea? There is a fluidity of the leader and follower roles that often goes unrecognized or unacknowledged but is very real—happens every day.
Essentials of Followership champions a new paradigm of leadership focused on a common purpose, one in which leaders, followers, leadership, and followership each hold their rightful, human-honoring place.
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