Leadership & Followership

Important Relationship of Leaders and Followers

Graphics courtesy of Fast CompanyOpens in new window What’s a leader without followers? “A leader with no followers is someone taking a walk, who happens to be highly delusionalOpens in new window.” Followership is important in the discussion of leadershipOpens in new window for several reasons. Clearly, without followers there are no leaders. For any projectOpens in new window or organizationOpens in new window to succeed, there must be people who willingly and effectively follow, just as there must be those who willingly and effectively lead.

Followership is the flip-side of leadership. The reality is that followership is just as important as leadership when it comes to an organization’s performance. Leaders depend on followers and vice versa.

Think about it: Without his armies, after all, Napoleon was just a man with bold ambitions. Organizations succeed or fail partly on the basis of how well their leaders lead, but partly also on how well their followers follow.

Because leadership and followership are closely intertwined, effective followers can shape productive leadership behavior just as effective leaders develop employees into good followers.

Leadership and followership are fundamental roles that individuals shift into and out of under various conditions. Everyone—leaders included—is a follower at one time or another. Indeed, most individuals, even those in positions of authority, have some kind of boss or supervisor. Individuals are more often followers than leaders.

This literature series examine the important relationship of leaders and followers to include offering a definition of followers/followership, describing the characteristics of good or excellent followersOpens in new window.

We need to better understand followership—not just because it essentially complements leadership, but for its own specific qualities.

Toward a Definition of Followers/Followership

Followership is not the opposite of leadership. Followership is not blind obedience, being a “yes man/woman,” or being disingenuous in one’s support of a leader. Followers are not merely minions who do nothing to distinguish themselves.

Followers are subordinates who have less power, authority, and influence than do their superiors, and who therefore usually, but not invariably, fall into line.

According to Kellerman, “Followers are subordinates who have less power, authority, and influence than do their superiors, and who therefore usually, but not invariably, fall into line.”

Followership recognizes that followers can be in a position to better recognize the day-to-day events within an organization that can actively cultivate good followers, and that sometimes following is more difficult than leading.

It is challenging to define followership because the term conjures up different meanings for people, and the idea of being a follower is positive for some and negative for others.

For example, in military situations followership is seen as valuable when soldiers follow orders from a platoon leader to complete a mission.

In contrast, however, followers are thought of negatively in a situation where individuals in a college fraternity are required to conduct life-threatening hazing rituals with new members. Clearly, followership can be positive or negative, and it plays out differently in different settings.

What Then Is Followership?

Followership involves power differential between the follower and the leader. Typically, followers comply with the directions and wishes of leaders—they defer to leaders’ power.

Given this definition, in work situations followership is the ability to take direction well, the willingness to cooperate in working toward the accomplishment of the mission, to be part of a team and demonstrate a high degree of cohesion and teamwork, and to deliver on what is expected of you. Effective followership is an essential building block to effective leadership.