Why is Nobody Talking About the Ability to Follow?

 The topic of leadership in management has been discussed time and time again in every management meeting, conference and symposium all over the world and in many different languages. Leadership is a universal concept taught and learned by many and rightfully so, because of it's importance in building and growing a formidable company. However, there is one important ingredient in the leadership mix that is seldom spoken about, and that is followership. A leader is only as powerful as the willingness and obedience of his followers. Therefore it is safe to generalise that the followers are indeed leading. We can also look at it this way; even though you might be a leader in certain social groups, you are most likely to be a follower in another. Therefore, everybody is in fact a follower somewhere. People sometimes say great leaders make poor followers. I think this should not be so. Therefore, looking through my lenses as a young, working professional, I would like to take a bite at this subject in leadership called followership.

In my opinion, strategic followership is a form of leadership in itself and is also one of the strongest routes to gaining power. But before I go on, I know there are many variations in followership that do not fit into the type of followership I am talking about here. So, I will use an analogy to show different followers and circle out the one I am talking about. There is a new supervisor on the shop floor who is autocratic and is making impossible and stringent demands with regards to time limits for stacking items in a departmental store. Follower A on the one hand takes this with a heart of servitude and works himself twenty times more than possible to reach this limit. Follower B on the other expressly rebels against this mean demand and confronts the new supervisor unprofessionally. But follower C does something, he raises his hand during the meeting and respectfully expresses his logical concerns with meeting the target (especially since its almost humanly possible). When that is not considered, he genuinely does his best to stack as much as he can. He has always been a very dedicated staff. But when all else fails, he discusses with other disgruntled staff and then take it to the manager as a compliant, requesting a meeting to revise the new demands. This meeting turns out effective and he is made the spokesperson for the newly formed workers representation council. The thing with being a diligent follower is that it always results to leadership. Leadership is not about speaking from the top all the time, sometimes it is about replying from the bottom.

As a young professional, my heart bleeds for the unhealthy competition I sometimes see among my peers in non-managerial or non-supervisory roles. Everyone wants to be a leader, but that is impossible from the start. Leadership is not about the position, it is about the ability to influence, from the top or from the bottom. Everyone wants to be noticed at their jobs  but whatever happened to being noticed FOR YOUR JOB? One would like to ask whether I have any interest in leading at all. Of course I do, but I have an interest in following too because the ability to follow is one of the best qualities of a good leader. There is no organisational missile as fast, precise and effective as a follower with leadership qualities. I am not saying hide in the background until Jesus comes again, NO. Do your job exceptionally well, be strategic, be helpful, be obedient, be willing, be honest and the next thing that naturally follows all of these is being a leader.