Just as there can not be ‘too many cooks in the kitchen’ a company cannot run solely on leadership. Without followers, leaders would be unable to get the job done. But do companies understand the importance of their followers/workers and are they giving them the respect they deserve? Barbara Kellerman researched the campaign for Audi car company and their campaign slogan `Never Follow.` The ad ran successfully for five years until 2007 the slogan was finally abandoned. It was so successful because it “tapped into a fear rooted deep in the American psyche” (Kellerman, p3). Who wants to be second best? On the other hand, who wants to diminish their own followers? Kellerman noted that North American culture has the perception that “there is no glory in toeing the line” (p.5). Companies are learning that followers deserve a more positive reputation and that followers are an integral part of the team. Why is it then, that little research has been done on followers and followership?
Leaders are more often associated with making change, directing organizations from the top, whereas followers do all the dirty work. Kent Bjugstad, vice president of Maverick Media, did a search and “revealed 95,220 titles devoted to leadership” (Bjugstad, p.304) and only 792 titles on followership. He pointed out that most of the 792 titles were dedicated to spiritual or political followership. This was a ratio of 120:1. Also, it was “not until 1967 has there been official mention of the importance of followership” (Landino,p.2). Landino, through the research of Ira Chaleff, discovered that “there are 300 leadership texts to every one on followership” (Landino,p.3). John W. Gardner, who served six presidents, argued that “much less attent...
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Thousands of years ago, leadership, authority, structure, and rules were the basis of the Bible and Hammurabi’s Code. These set in stone that era’s belief in a reward-based system to incentivize people to work, and obey. You followed the rules, you were rewarded; you didn’t, and you were punished. During the classical era of Homer, Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, great leaders were educated and experienced in strategic planning, goal setting, critical thinking, and having great communication to their followers, who in turn became great leaders themselves. During this era, we begin to see the nuances of an integral part of transformational leadership: the impact your followers can have on your individual success as a leader. Plato said that
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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.
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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.
Barbara Kellerman is a unique theorist – she was one of the first theorists to focus the bulk of her research on something overlooked by other researchers: followers. Kellerman (2005) sees leadership in a way few others do: as a relationship that exists between leaders and followers and the context in which that relationship operates. By that logic followership must be an extension of leadership, rather than a result of it.
Ivey Business Journal. (n.d.). Followership: the other side of leadership. Retrieved January 14, 2014 from http:iveybusinessjournal.com/topics/leadership/leadership/followership-the-other-side-of-leadership#.UtbFeaFMHIU
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
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