Followers Make the Leader

LCDP X: Leadership Learning Seminar

Paula Fratantoni

September 20, 2017

1. Shirtless dancing guy

●We often focus on leadership, but we don’t think much about the followers who make us leaders

●The Shirtless Dancing Guy video illustrates the importance of followers in starting a movement, particularly the first follower

●First followers transform the lone nut into a leader

2. What inspires people to follow?

What do Gaga, Gandhi and Jobs have in common?

Gaga / Gandhi / Jobs
Who are they? / Misfit, performer, superstar / One of the masses; / Dropout, dreamer, change agents
What is their message? / It’s okay not to fit in / Intentional living; universal brotherhood and tolerance, religious pluralism / Think different
Change the World!
Who is their community? / Community of misfits: LGBT, outcasts, misunderstood / satyagrahis
dedicated to truth / Creative, Bold, Rebels, geniuses

●Gaga: Is LOUD about who she is; Defines the community she is creating (misfits). Promotes a compelling message (It’s okay not to fit in!)

●Gandhi: Is intentional in the way he lives and behaves regardless of audience (intentional living, truth); simple message that he enrolled his community in (in this fight together, you must carry on if I am beaten down)

●Jobs: Think Different – be bold, creative, rebel

●Keys to attracting Followers: If you want followers, you have to tell them who you are: where you come from, what you stand for; make them feel like they belong to a well-defined community that is bigger than its parts; and promote a simple, compelling vision that is always visible

Take home: Get good at answering the question “Why should I follow you?” with your words and your actions

3. Who makes the best follower?

●It’s easy to mistaken followers for sheep! Followership should not be mistaken for simple compliance or “surrender” to a leader or system! At its best, followership is conscious commitment to the system, rules, culture, goals or leader to achieve best outcome for all

●Using the tango to characterize followership styles ()

  • Styles identified include:
  1. graceful – harmonious, supports creativity and innovation
  2. weak – restrictive, limiting for the leader to do all the work
  3. self-serving – show off stealing attention, lowers the potential of the partnership
  4. resistant – follower has no trust in vision of the leader; capable of changing the course (focus) of the dance
  5. strong/grounded – true partnership; follower may assume leadership to keep the dance on track
  6. In dance the follower/leader roles are gender neutral!

●In Praise of Followers (Robert Kelley, 1988):

  • Effective followers may have very different motivations for and perceptions of their role as a follower.
  • For example:

Motivation / Perception
Satisfaction in helping further a cause, idea or organizational goal / View role as legitimate and inherently valuable
Ambition / View role as necessary but maybe not attractive
  • Followers w/ very different motivations can perform equally well.
  • Kelley analyzed behavior that leads to effective following, identifying 2 underlying behavioral dimensions: (1) degree to which the follower thinks critically and independently and (2) how passive/active they are in pursuing goals
  • Using this scale, five followership patterns emerged
  1. sheep – passive, lack initiative
  2. yes men – more active, but still un-enterprising; dependent on leader for inspiration
  3. alienated – good ideas, independent thinkers, but passive; cynical/disgruntled
  4. survivors – good at weathering change, cautious
  5. effective – independent, active, adds value
  • Mapping styles from tango example onto this scale the Graceful and Stong/Grounded follower styles fall in the effective follower box, while survivors may adopt any style to suit their needs
  • “Followership is not a person but a role, and what distinguishes followers from leaders is not intelligence or character but the role they play. Effective followers and effective leaders are often the same people playing different parts at different hours of the day” – In Praise of Followers

Take home: Good followers have qualities similar to effective leaders!

4. How do I attract and keep (good) followers?

●We can all think of examples where leaders squandered their followers. Think of the leader who:

  • Presides versus leading?
  • Plays the “mask game” = two faces (public face vs. “pub” face, Colin James, )
  • Lacks humility
  • Does not own mistakes

●In my research, I came across some Gallup Pole research, articles/interviews by Rath and Conchie (e.g. from their book Strengths based Leadership).

  • They point out that what leaders get paid to do is often not what their followers need them to do! … leaders paid to run an org effectively, including strategizing, setting visions, building relationships, influencing others and generally making things happen.
  • However, when asked, followers were clear that they are looking for a few very specific things. Here comes that EQ again!!!!
  1. Trust – speaks to behavioral predictability; do what you say you will do
  2. Stability – people need to know there is a constancy in their jobs and where the organization is headed
  3. Hope – No hope w/o trust and stability. This is an aspirational factor that gives people a reason to commit because future will be better than present (hope requires initiative – leaders are more likely to react than initiate!)
  4. Compassion – Importance of building a personal relationship – this can manifest in many ways (e.g. not necessarily about being nice; caring enough to have tough conversations; showing compassion on an institutional level)

●We can also learn about how to treat our followers by looking at what makes a successful team (e.g. Google Aristotle Project)

)

  • examined 180 of its own teams asking what makes a team successful
  • looked at composition as well as group norms
  • concluded that the “who” is less important than how the team behaved/interacted (good, since we can’t always choose our followers!)
  • teams share a collective IQ that can outweigh the intelligence of any single member
  • the “right norms” can raise the collective EQ while the wrong norms can hobble a team even if all members are exceptionally bright!
  • Norms vital to success: conversational turn taking and social sensitivity (intuiting how others feel based on tone of voice, expression and nonverbal cues)
  • Creating psychological safety whereby the climate is characterized by trust and mutual respect

●We often make the mistake of assuming followers know how to follow while leadership can be taught, but this suggests:

  • that leaders are more important than followers
  • that following is simply doing what you’re told
  • that followers draw all their energy, aims and talent from the leader (critical thinking, self management , conflict management, etc.)

●Cultivating followership means:

  • redefining leadership and followership
  • providing followership training
  • tailoring performance reviews to emphasize/reward good followership
  • demonstrate good followership
  • incorporate good followership into culture

Take Home: Pay as much attention to establishing a culture of trust and mutual respect as you do to your strategic vision

5. Conclusions:

  1. Don’t underestimate the importance of followers
  2. Get good at answering the question, “Why should I follow you?”
  3. The best followers often have qualities similar to effective leaders
  4. Focus attention on establishing a culture of trust and mutual respect, in addition to you strategic vision