Many organizations have placed great emphasis on leadership as a major component of the organizational success. While leadership is important in any organization, the success of a leader depends on the nature of the followers that the leader has. Great followers make leadership both enjoyable and successful. Moreover, most MBA programs emphasize leadership skills. They train people to be great leaders. While this is important, such programs ignore the important role that followers play in making leadership a success. The concept of followership describes the specific qualities that make one a great follower. These qualities enable followers to support their leaders in achieving their vision and hence making them great leaders. There are several ways through which great followers result in great leaders.
Great Followers Improve the Leadership Ability of the Leader
A great leader needs to improve his or her capacity to lead as well as the leadership skills consistently. The followers play a critical role in enabling the leader to improve their leadership capacity and skills. Great followers improve the capacity and ability of a leader through the following means.
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Constructive Feedback and Criticism
Great Followers are Honest with their leader. They understand that they owe their leader honesty in their feedback to the leadership style of the leaders and different positions that the leader takes in different matters (McCallum, 2013). When great followers see that their leader is taking a direction that flowed and likely to compromise the team’s ability to deliver on their objectives, great followers give the leader a constructive assessment that will help the leaders take an appropriate approach in the matter.
Secondly, great followers are courageous. One of the distinguishing traits of a great follower is the courage to approach the leader when he or she has concerns and reservations about the leader’s approach in any given matter (McCallum, 2013). The honesty of a great follower is complemented by the courage to express such an honest view and assessments. These two aspects of a great follower enable the leaders to reevaluate the approaches he or she takes in their leadership and consequently correct any mistake. By making such contributions to the ability and capacity of a leader, great followers consistently improve their leaders.
Keeping the Leader in Check
Great followers are consistently keeping their leaders in check. Several traits among great followers enable them to keep their leader under check. For instance, great followers have good judgment (McCallum, 2013). While they have the responsibility to follow the leader, they understand that they can only do so when the leader’s direction is both ethical and proper. When the leader gives instructions and directions that are not ethical or proper, great followers undertake the responsibility to reject such instructions and direction. This greatly keeps the leader under check and ensures that the leader is consistently ethical and proper in his or her leadership. On the contrary, where followers lack good ethical and moral judgment, their leader can get away with any unethical decision that he or she takes (Thomas & Berg, 2016). Therefore, the good judgment of great followers enables them to keep their leader under check.
Great Followers Support The leader’s Vision
One of the fundamental factors that lead to the success of an organization and the realization of the leader’s vision is the ability of the leader to get the support of the followers in the implementation of the strategies towards the vision. Where such support is weak, the realization of the leader’s vision is greatly compromised. Therefore, the support of the followers enables the leader to realize his or her vision and consequently make him a great leader. Great followers support the leader’s vision differently.
Loyalty
Great followers support their leaders by being loyal to them. It is worth noting that one characteristic that makes followers great is their ability to remain loyal to the Leaders and their vision (Thomas & Berg, 2016). A great follower is one that maintains his obligation to be loyal to the leader and the vision of the leader and the organization at large both in good times as well as during turbulent times. Since the vision depends on the followers to execute, loyal followers will be with the leader throughout the execution of the vision (Cotter-Lockard, 2018). On the other hand, followers who are not loyal abandon the leader in turbulent times and hence greatly impair the leader’s ability to realize their vision.
Secondly, followers who have a strong allegiance to the organization and the leaders offer moral and technical support to the leader (Thomas & Berg, 2014). This greatly supports the leader in the realization of their vision. They encourage the leader when things get tough and offer their emotional support that strengthens the leader and keeps him or her going. Leaders who have disloyal followers can easily get discouraged, which makes it hard for leaders to realize their vision.
Technical Support
Great followers are competent in what they do. As such, competence is a key trait that makes one a great follower. The realization of the leader’s vision requires him to have a team that is competent to execute the strategy that the leader has outlined for the realization of the leader’s vision (McCallum, 2013). While the leader must develop competency in the followers, such followers must use their competency in supporting the realization of the leader’s vision.
The strategy towards the realization of a leader’s vision outlines the tasks that need to be accomplished. Each of these tasks requires specific competencies. As such, the tasks are assigned to the individual followers who possess these competencies (Thomas & Berg, 2014). When members of the team are well competent at the task assigned to them, they will execute them to perfection. When viewed collectively, such perfected tasks will contribute to the realization of the organization’s vision.
Great Followers Contribute to the Leader’s Decision Making
As pointed out, great followers are highly competent in what they do; they possess great insight and technical knowledge in their respective areas of specialization. Therefore, such followers hold vast information essential in reliable decision-making (Cotter-Lockard, 2018). A leader makes different and diverse decisions on a daily bases depending on prevailing conditions and their strategic approach. For such decisions to be effective, they must be based on knowledge. While a great leader consults with the followers in decision-making, great followers understand their moral obligation to give honest and knowledgeable contributions that can help the leader in decision-making (Thomas & Berg, 2014). The decisions made based on knowledge are effective in realizing the set vision and enabling the leader to be a great leader.
Conclusion
Great followers contribute to the making of a great leader. They improve the leader’s ability to lead through both constructive feedback as well as keeping the leader in check. Secondly, such followers support the leader’s vision and hence make it easy for the leader to lead and realize the vision. Such support is offered through technical knowledge and skills as well as loyalty to the leader and the vision. Lastly, Great followers help their leader to make the right decision. They do so by offering technical knowledge and insight that informs decision-making. Therefore, great leaders indeed need great followers.
References
Cotter-Lockard, D. (2018). Erratum to: Authentic Leadership and Followership: International Perspectives. Authentic Leadership and Followership, 9 (4), 111-127.
McCallum, J. (2013). Followership: the Other Side of Leadership. Ivey Business Journal . Retrieved Sept. 18, 2018, from https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/followership-the-other-side-of-leadership/
Thomas, T., & Berg, B. (2014). Followership: Exercising Discretion. Journal of Leadership Education, 13 (4), 144-158.
Thomas, T., & Berg, P. (2016). Leading from the Middle: Effective Followership. Followership in Action, 7 (12), 205-213.
