Derek Sivers gave a brief TED talk entitled “How to start a movement” that is a great example of how important followers are and how they make or break a leader. In his presentation, he discusses the importance of the first follower in launching a movement. The premise is that while a leader may have the courage to stand alone it is the first follower that attracts others to join the organization and stand behind a leader. Followers typically have less authority and influence than their boss does. Followership, however, relates to the role those followers have in supporting the boss and the organization. Interestingly, while not everyone is a leader, every leader is a follower and answerable to someone whether that is a superior officer, a board of directors, or in the case of the United States President, the American people. The best leaders are also truly adept followers.
The concept of followership states that good followers understand their leader’s goals and objectives, the pressures he faces, what his strengths and weaknesses are, and perhaps most critically where his blind ...
Great followership is a reflection of great
Ramsey, R. (2006). Lead follow or get out of the way: How to be a more effective leader in
Küpers, W. (2007). Perspectives on Integrating Leadership and Followership. Retrieved 4 22, 2014, from International Journal of Leadership Studies: http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/ijls/new/vol2iss3/kupers/kupers.htm
In this book, the authors Tom Rath and Barry Conchie examine the question “What are the keys to being an effective leader?” To answer this question they had a team that reviewed data collected from Gallup polls. The data came from interviews from 20,000 senior leaders, over a million teams and more than fifty years of Gallup Polls of the most admired leaders in the world. The authors then had the team do a study of more than 10,000 followers to find out why they follow the influential leaders in their life.
It has been stated how the transformational effect of charismatic leaders lead to increased follower motivation (Humphreys, 2009). Due to the various attributes that transformational leaders have, such as charisma and understanding, they are likely to motivate others to follow after the examples that they may display. There is also Effective followership. Effective followership prepares a person to be an Effective leader since being a follower is considered as a prerequisite to leading. According to Humphreys (2009), organizations are comprised of groups of followers and leaders, who are listening and taking direction from one
Therefore the leader must look at ways to get the follower to be on board with the views and ideologies of the organization. With that in mind, leaders must set the right example to move the employee from point A to B. Leaders must embrace the term of being a role model and while they may feel that they are incompetent and lack the experience of a seasoned leader. They must envision themselves as the role model to deflect the perception by the follower they are worthy of following. The follower perception of the leader as a worthy role model is conceptually different than the standard behavior that a leader may demonstrate (Organ et al., 2006) Thus the leader must set the tone through leading by personal example which facilitates the social learning process (Manz & Sims, 1981). (Yaffe & Kark, 2011) Leaders can build trust within the organization so that employees would not question or complain about the leaders decision and trust that even though they may be young, it is in the best interest of
However, each of the behaviors can be used individually or collectively as different situations call for different behaviors (Whitener, 2007). Follower characteristics describe how an individual will interpret ...
Every organization requires effective followership and leadership to reach peak performance. Effective followers use creativity, intrinsic motivations, and commitment to the organization to ensure its success. In addition, great followers need great leaders to guide them and build them into future leaders. Great leaders understand the importance of various followership styles and traits and use them to benefit the organization while helping followers achieve greatness as well. Futhermore, great followers and leaders strive to continually build on their strengths and weaknesses. With that in mind, strengths and areas of improvement will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
Another author that has investigated the followership topic but asserts a few qualifications between her work and others is Kellerman. She characterizes her work as more descriptive than prescriptive as she considers there must be such a variety of variables impacting the followers behaviors that it is hard to be instructive. According to Kellerman (2008), there are two conceivable definitions about followers: “Followers can be defined by their rank: They are subordinates who have less power, authority, and influence then do their superiors”. And “followers can also be defined by their behavior: they go along with what someone else wants and intends”. Kellerman (2008) uses rank and behavior as determinants to characterize followers, focusing
One of the most important components of leadership is the leader. A leader is responsible for his or her followers and the overall goal of the group or organization. Leaders are the people held accountable or everything that happens, good or bad. On the other hand, the second major component of leadership is the followers. Without followers, a leader would be worthless. Followers make up the backbone of a leader because they are the masses that get goals accomplished. A leader is just one person, but the number of followers is countless. In order to be an effective follower, there are a countless number of characteristics that allow a follower to be the best they can be. Five of these characteristics include a positive attitude, communication skills, being part of the process, being open to new ideas, and patience.
Leadership can be traced back to many ideologies over the history of time. There have been individuals that have achieved great success and accomplishments through inspiring others to believe and follow their leadership. This paper will explain some of the theories that philosophically explain how those great people inspired others to believe in their vision and goals.
The concept of followership has existed for decades, but only in relatively recent times has the idea received more attention. The dictionary definition of the word “followership” is “the capacity or willingness to support a leader”. In his 1988 book, The Power of Followership, noted followership scholar Robert E. Kelly found this to be lacking.
Maxwell, (2013) explains how the first level of leadership is positional. Followers, who view leaders at this level are motivated by compliance measures, rather than inspiration or desire. The mindset of the follower is that, their job to do what is directed of them, so they obey. Fear and coercion are often motivators for followers at level one. Maxwell, (2013) further explains that, at this level, leaders receive the least amount of the follower’s energy, effort, and mind.
Followers: a non-submissive influencer who have devotion to a task and who 's state of mind is a powerful ingredient for the success of an organization and a leader. Followers create the influence necessary for a leader to have authority. Without it the organization will
I feel you must be able to follow before you can lead, and sometimes followers have an advantage, because followers observe & pay more attention to their surroundings than leaders do and some leaders rely on their followers for most information. Most leaders don’t teach followers how to follow, they just follow. We all want to be leaders at some point in life for something, and no one wants to be a follower. From further reading the article I analyzed that leaders who can’t risk, can’t lead. We want to give praise and look up to the leaders all the all the time and look down on the followers, because most people think followers are weak individuals who only do what they are told and don’t support their leaders whole heartedly and don’t speak up when something is wrong or a problem or situation arises. In doing further research Ira Chaleff said the followers and leaders share a common purpose being a follower is the best training for a becoming a