THE WEB OF LEADERS & FOLLOWERS
HeroicLeaders.com
Leaders and
Followers
There is an extraordinarily large and diverse
body of work that addresses leadership. Unfortunately,
the same cannot be said about followership.
There is a very small body of work
about effective followers and their relationship
to leaders. That will need to change if we are
going to be able to make the construction of
leadership webs a common occurrence.
THE SCARCITY THEORY OF
LEADERSHIP & THE UNDERVALUING
OF FOLLOWERS
Leaders are still usually portrayed as few in
number, significantly different than followers in
terms of characteristics and competencies, and
separated from followers by some
gap, across which communications
flows mostly from leaders to followers.
Lip service is given to the significance
of followers, but they are
still almost always portrayed as secondary
players and only in relationship
to the really important person,
the leader. This phenomenon disenfranchises
followers and asks too little of them
at the same time that it sets up leaders to fail.
BOTH LEADER AND
FOLLOWER
The other limiting factor is that leaders and followers
are usually talked about as
though the person is always in one role. He or
she is “a leader” or “a follower”. The reality for
most of us is that we are sometimes in leadership
roles and sometimes in follower roles. In
some settings we will be leading and relying on
effective followers. In other settings (often at
the same time) we will be playing the role of
follower for someone else – and they will be relying
on us.
Even in the same journey the shift between
roles can come in various forms. Some of us
will lead early and take more of a follower role
later. Others will begin in a follower’s role and
take on leadership roles as the journey and its
requirements evolve. The key is to have people
ready to play both roles and to be clear on the
requirements and opportunities to play them.
COMMON GROUND FOR
LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS —
THE SAME JOURNEY
The heroic journey highlights how much common
ground there really is for leaders and followers
in terms of the likely experience. Not
only will leaders and followers face many of the
same challenges, but they will also
need to draw upon or develop many
of the same characteristics and capabilities.
Because of the exceptional
requirements of the six leadership
roles, it is unlikely that any
one person will encompass all that
is required. They will need to rely
on others for what they do not bring,
just as others will rely on them. Such
is the nature of the journey.
Profiles of
Effective
Followers
The actions of followers have a tremendous
impact on leaders, particularly as the journey
progresses and leaders begin to doubt, wonder,
lose some faith and start to question the value
“The reality for
most of us is that
we are sometimes
in leadership roles
and sometimes in
follower roles.”
THE WEB OF LEADERS & FOLLOWERS
HeroicLeaders.com
of the effort or the ability to successfully complete
it. When followers genuinely “answer the
call” and bring their energy and talent to bear
on the challenges of the journey, the leadership
web can reach the required levels of power,
reach and resilience.
The slowly (very slowly) emerging wisdom proposes
that the basic characteristics and capabilities
of effective
leaders and effective
followers are very
similar and what
differentiates them
is the role they are
playing in a particular
situation at a particular
time. Robert
Kelly, Ira Chaleff and
Barbara Kellerman
all value effective
followers and each
bring a different,
though compatible,
profile of what an effective
follower looks like. Their work is also
compatible with heroic leadership.
Their work is worth studying and, hopefully,
others will begin to add to the literature – and
we will try to model their characteristics when
we are playing followers roles – and call on our
followers to do the same when we are in leadership
roles.
ROBERT KELLY
Robert Kelly in a Harvard Business Review
article titled “In Praise of Followers” (followed
by a book) identified four qualities shared by
effective or exemplary followers. They could
just as easily apply to effective or exemplary
leaders.
ÿ They manage themselves well.
ÿ They are committed to the organization
and to a purpose, principle, or person
beyond themselves.
ÿ They build their competence and focus
their efforts for maximum impact.
ÿ They are courageous, honorable, and
credible.
IRA CHALEFF
Ira Chaleff in The Courageous Follower proposes
that there are five dimensions of courageous
followership, which fit well with Kelly’s charac-
teristics:
ÿ The courage to assume responsibility
– for themselves and their organizations.
They look for ways to add value
and realize their potential in the process.
ÿ The courage to serve – serving leaders
and, with those leaders, serving the purpose
of the organization. They understand
leaders’ needs and support them.
ÿ The courage to challenge – standing up
to (for) leaders when things don’t seem
right. They are willing to risk rejection
and others’ strong emotions in service
of the organization’s well being.
ÿ The courage to participate in transfor
mation - starting with the willingness to
join in the call for change followed by
the ability to commit and stay involved
through the tough patches. They are
also willing to look at themselves and
change as appropriate.
ÿ The courage to leave – the refusal to
collaborate with destructive leadership.
They are willing to not only challenge
poor leadership, but also risk being
terminated or coming to the decision
that they must leave.
“The basic characteristics
and
capabilities of effective
leaders and
followers are very
similar and what
differentiates them
is the role they are
playing in a particular
situation at
a particular time.”
THE WEB OF LEADERS & FOLLOWERS
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BARBARA KELLERMAN
Barbara Kellerman, in a Harvard Business Review
article entitled “What Every Leader Needs
to Know About Followers,” provides a useful
way to think about followers using only one
metric, which is the level of engagement shown
by followers. Kellerman categorizes followers
as:
ÿ Isolates – know little and do less. They
are detached and care little about their
leaders or organizations. They get by
doing just enough to escape attention
ÿ Bystanders – are free-riders, who
observe, but don’t participate. Unlike
isolates, bystanders are aware of their
surroundings and consciously opt to
stand aside.
ÿ Participants – are engaged, whether in
support of leaders or in opposition.
They invest themselves to some degree
and act on that investment.
ÿ Activists – as with participants, activists
care, invest themselves and act on their
investment. They bring more commitment
and energy and are thus, strong
supporters or strong in opposition.
While relatively few in number, they
can have a major impact on a group.
ÿ Diehards – are rare, but are prepared to
go down with their cause, which can be
a leaders, an idea, an organization or a
combination. They are seen as coming
to the fore in situations that are dire
and, as with participants and activists,
they can be supporters or opponents
of leaders.
The attitudes and opinions of isolates and bystanders
do not matter a great deal unless they
can be changed to help them evolve to participants.
The attitudes and opinions of participants,
activists and diehards, however, matter a
great deal. It is their attitudes
and opinions that
provide leaders with
leverage and should,
therefore, attract most
leadership attention.
Good followers will do
something - they will
actively support good
leaders - they will actively challenge poor leaders.
And they will demonstrate the characteristics
proposed by Kelly and Chaleff. As Chaleff
has framed the challenge, courage is at the
foundation of effective followership just as it is
for effective leadership.
Contracting
among Leaders
and Followers
THE LEADER’S PART
OF THE BARGAIN
Leaders can prove their worthiness to followers
and uphold their part of the bargain through the
following actions:
1 Answering the call to lead - bringing
their best, fully committing themselves
and acting with an awareness of their
significance.
2 Bringing an understanding of the heroic
journey and an appreciation of what
they are asking of themselves and their
followers and teaching that reality to
others.
“Courage is at
the foundation
of effective followership
just as
it is for effective
leadership.”