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Understanding the influence of peer pressure
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Leaders will always exist and to be a leader you have to steer people in the right direction. So as long as there are leaders, there will be followers. My high school did not have the typical cliques portrayed on television; there were no cheerleaders or jocks in sports jackets waiting by the lockers. We didn’t have lockers or jock or cheerleaders - period. The social system was very different. But one thing remained the same between the exaggerated version of high school and my 600 people high school in a village in Nigeria. There were popular kids. And three things usually determined why the kids became popular, they had money and so they had things that other people wanted, they were pretty or smart or they were just friendly. The popular kids turned out to be the leader and anywhere there a leaders there are followers. A follower is defined as someone who travels behind someone or something, A lot of people refuse to be identified with this lot because everyone wants to be on top or the “winner” the goal of this paper is to argue that in a leader follower relationship, follo...
“Leadership will be the most important resource an organization can possess. After all, it will be leadership that determines whether organizations successfully harness the emerging opportunities and overcome the perils that await.” Jay A.Conger – Professor, London Business School.
It seems self-evident that one cannot be a leader unless he or she has followers; put differently, one cannot hold a leadership role unless others are prepared to hold followership roles. These roles are more or less symbiotic - done effectively, each role can support and benefit the other. Nevertheless, the term “follower” has acquired a negative connotation, and leadership is generally considered to be the pinnacle to which we should all strive in our working lives, if not our personal lives as well. However, thanks to the work of authors such as Robert E. Kinney, who introduced the concept of followership, the characteristics, roles and paths of followers now receive increased attention. Kinney’s groundbreaking article, “In Praise of Followers”, appears along with the work of other authors on followership in The Leaders Companion.
Napierkowski adds relationship to the list. The relationship is between the follower and leader – how they rely on each other. To attain a heroic title as a leader, the followers must obey the codes of nobility put upon society and successfully put it into play, as well as build a strong bond with the fellow leader.
In perspective of the model of transcendent leadership, the proposal is that subordinates need to show aptitudes that reflect those of their pioneers and propose transcendent followership as a mapping for the commitments of devotees in contemporary various leveled circumstances. A transcendent follower is somebody who communicates ability as far as their administration of relations with self, others and association. Ability in the area of self alludes to being mindful and proactive in creating unique qualities. Ability in the area of others alludes to the procedures of interpersonal effect, in connection to pioneers and associates. Ability in the area of association alludes to aggregate support and change. The article offers an incorporated perspective of the parts and obligations of followers in dynamic hierarchical situations, introducing them as colleagues as opposed to subordinates.
There have been countless books, lectures, and and trainings, and retreats constructed around the idea of cultivating leadership in an individual. However, cultivating individuals’ ability to follow great leadership has received far less attention. Who are these people leading if each person within an organization is being trained to be a leader? The word follower has negative connotations, evoking the images of a weak, uncreative, milquetoast personality. However, Jimmy Collins, in his book, “Creative Followership: In the Shadow of Greatness”, suggests that the ability to be led brings as much creativity, consciousness, and indeed leadership to an organization or team as the leader himself. Great followership is a reflection of great leadership. In this, the follower is just as important as the leader in the relationship. Many great leaders have asserted that a leader with even a modicum of understanding of what drives their subordinates can take their organization to previously undreamt-of heights in creativity and productivity. Collins does not disabuse us of this notion, he does however add that the follower is indispensable agent in this interplay between leader and follower.
I have been fortunate to work with several heads of departments within a couple years of graduating college. During this time, I have worked with quality leaders and not so great ones. The quality leaders were competent, skillful and endowed with people skills. These leaders gave me the opportunity to grow and a sense of purpose. After reading The Leadership Advantage by Warren Bennis, I was quickly reminded about a former superior of mine that lacked the understanding and knowledge of what qualities a leader should have. The company also did not entertain a culture that promotes employee satisfaction.
Kellerman’s theories examine followers not as subordinates, but as co-participants in leadership (Ekundayo, Damhoeri, & Ekundayo, 2010). Thus she focuses as much on the followers as the leadership it is trying to unlock. She sees followers as defined by their level of engagement extending from isolationists to diehards (Kellerman, 2007). By defining these followers, according to Kellerman, leaders can quickly determine the nature of the leader-follower relationship. This provides leaders with information on how much or little their followers are invested in the organization they are involved.
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 ...
To me, leaders are constantly surrounding us. People constantly need to be led and they seek out individuals around them who have personalities that stand out – the basic qualities of leadership, the Great Man Theory. This could be in terms of their appearance, knowledge, charisma, behaviour or style. For example, popular actors/actresses might not be great leaders but they influence the thoughts of people through advertisements through their appearance and charisma. Leadership is also a process where trust of people needs to be gained and established before followers are doing things willingly and without having to use pressure. Managers are different in this aspect, as they are given authority/power and trust factor might not be required to actively participate in management, subordinates might not be performing their tasks willingly. The above idea is adopted from the most recent leadership definition by Manfred Kets de Vries, he defines leadership style as the point of interaction between the leader’s character, the follower’s character and the situation. (Manfred Kets de Vries, The Leadership Mystique, Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2001) To gain people’s trust, the first steps is to communicate, Warren Bennis observed the significance of rhetoric and eloquent, “Effective leaders put words to the formless longings and deeply felt needs of others. They create communities out of words.” (Bennis Warren, An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change, Reading, Mass, Addison-Wesly, 1993)
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.
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
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.
Raymond W. Cox III, Gregory K. Plagens, and Keba Sylla, “The Leadership-followership Dynamic: Making the Choice to Follow,” International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 5, no. 8 (December 2010): 46, Academic Search Complete, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=73343622&site=ehost-live (accessed March 1, 2014).
Leadership, without doubt, is a significantly important function of management. It helps to aggrandize efficiency and to fulfil an organization’s goals. Leadership is the ability of a manager to induce the subordinates to work with confidence, determination, courage and zeal. It is also defined as ability to influence a group towards the realization of a goal. Leaders should have the capability of developing future visions, and to drive the organizational members to want to attain the visions. This paper states my points in which I duly believe, justifies the importance of an outstanding leader in any organization.
Leadership is one of the most important facets in organizations. In most cases, leaders act with respect to organizational culture as well as the codes of conduct that determine the manner in which leaders relate with subordinates. Leadership entails the use of effective communication skills to get activities done in the workplace and to ensure that employees shelve their individual interests for the sake of their organizations’ shared targets. It is the role of leaders to ensure that consumers attain high quality products and services by making certain that members of their firms’ workforce are fully motivated to work effectively and utilize resources in an efficient manner (Bass, 22). With the increasingly sophisticated nature of the corporate world, leadership should not be based solely on the desire to control and coordinate affairs within the workplace, but leaders should also exhibit positive examples and continually monitor the changing trends in corporate governance to initiate the most relevant guidelines. Competitiveness can only be attained when leaders are in a position to set the right standards in their firms and coordinate affairs appropriately by understanding consumer and employee needs.