Leadership & Followership

Developing Better Followers: The Organization’s Responsibilities

Graphics courtesy of Harvard Business ReviewOpens in new window

It is important for leaders and their organizations to accept their responsibility in developing better followers by giving serious thought to how and what they can do to develop better followers which is critical to its success. This means that leaders and organizations must make a commitment to develop their people.

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:

1. 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 behaviors when leaders are acting in the role of followers.
2. Teach followership skills. Organizations should not assume that people inherently know how to effectively follow. Employers should teach employees the necessary skills, such as accountability, self-management, and analytical thinking. This type of training can be done through coachingOpens in new window, mentoringOpens in new window, and experiential learning.
3. 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 a leader also shines a spotlight on followership, this will prompt employees to think about how they can also improve as a follower.

4. Create a structure that supports followership. When creating teamsOpens in new window, leaders and their organizations should think about how they 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 employeesOpens in new window, or rewarding followers who take on an active role in a projectOpens in new window and are vital to its success.

Most organizations already have many exemplary followers, but they do not receive the same encouragement and opportunities to excel in that role as leaders receive in theirs.

Organizations should commit to restoring balance between these two sides of the same coin. They can begin the process by, for example, focusing on employees who are wholly committed to becoming organizational leaders and offering courses on followership. Obviously this will take significant time and resources. However, the return on investment will be worth it.

Another application of the followership principle lies in reworking the selection, training and development of new leaders, something that will resonate with millennials. Organizations should identify and nurture the qualities that will be needed for the dynamic world of the work of leaders, such as independence, creativity, flexibility, the ability to work unsupervised and, above all, courage. Organizations should consider giving more weight to these qualities in promotion decisions, and evaluate performance accordingly.

Finally, a key indicator of exemplary followership is the practice of constructive dissent. Developing skills in constructive dissent can only lead to better decisions as employees feel more comfortable in bringing concerns and critical information to the attention of leaders or to group and team activities. Constructive dissent will become part of the organization’s culture because the organization will be made up of more constructive dissenters and sharers of honest information.

Ultimately, the idea of followership is about creating an organizational culture where leadership is enhanced by followership. If we follow, we shall also lead.