effective follower essay

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Research: To Be a Good Leader, Start By Being a Good Follower

• Alex Haslam

A study of Royal Marines suggests “stand out from your peers” isn’t always good advice.

Leadership is a process that emerges from a relationship between leaders and followers. People will be more effective leaders when their behaviors indicate that they are one of us, that they share our values, concerns and experiences, and are working for us. Seen this way, perhaps the usual advice for aspiring leaders — “stand out from your peers” — is wrong. Perhaps aspiring leaders would be better served by ensuring that they are seen to be a good follower. A longitudinal study of 218 Royal Marines recruits completing an arduous 32 week training course suggests that may be the case: the Marines who saw themselves as followers, and were simply focused on getting the work done, were more likely to be recognized as leaders by both peers and commanders. But there’s a caveat: Marines who saw themselves as leaders were seen by commanders (but not by peers) as having more leadership potential . This suggests that what good leadership looks like is highly dependent on where evaluators are standing.

There is no shortage of advice for those who aspire to be effective leaders. One piece of advice may be particularly enticing: if you want to be a successful leader, ensure that you are seen as a leader and not a follower. To do this, goes the usual advice, you should seek out opportunities to lead, adopt behaviors that people associate with leaders rather than followers (e.g., dominance and confidence), and — above all else — show your exceptionalism relative to your peers .

• KP Kim Peters is senior lecturer in organizational psychology at the University of Queensland. Her research focuses on social influence processes (including communication and leadership) in social and organizational settings. She works closely with organizations to examine the role of psychological factors in organizational functioning.
• AH Alex Haslam is Professor of Psychology and Australian Laureate Fellow at the University of Queensland. His research focuses on the study of group and identity processes in social, organizational and clinical contexts. Together with over 200 co-authors around the world, Alex has written and edited 12 books and published over 200 peer-reviewed articles on these topics.

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Followership: What it is and Why it’s Essential for Leaders to Understand

“If you think you’re a leader and you turn around and no one is following you, then you’re simply out for a walk.” There are mixed opinions about the source of this quote, but it’s one that Dr. Chipp Windham, instructor in Bethel’s M.A. in Strategic Leadership program , keeps top of mind.

Traditionally, the world has held a leadership-centric view: leadership being of the utmost importance and everything else, including followership, being secondary. But followers are essential to the success of any team or organization, which is why studying the concept of followership can be transformative to a person’s leadership abilities.

We sat down with Windham to learn more about what followership is, why it’s an important concept for leaders, and how we can cultivate good followership in ourselves and others.

What is followership?

The study of followership concerns itself with the role a leader plays in understanding who their followers are and how best to lead them. At the same time, it also helps leaders understand how to be better followers themselves. All leaders have been and will be followers at times, and understanding followers’ individual needs (including your own) will help you move your organization forward.

Why is studying followership important?

The day and age of hierarchical leadership is over. “That style is nearly gone,” Windham says. “More and more, we need to be thinking about the skills and needs of the people we work with.” Rather than followers adapting to their leader, Windham says that leaders must identify and adapt to the needs and values of their followers.

As society becomes more diverse, so do followers’ needs and values. “People come to our organizations with all kinds of things that make up who they are,” Windham says. “It really is a leader’s job to identify all of the different values, skills, backgrounds, and relationships so that we can lead each individual based on their values, while still trying to get to the same end goal.”

How can leaders become better followers?

Start by identifying your followership style. There are a variety of tools that can help with this, but when Windham teaches his course on followership, he uses Robert E. Kelley’s model which features five distinct followership styles. People can identify their followership style by understanding where they fall along two different continuums: engagement (from passive to active) and critical thinking (from dependent to independent).

• Exemplary follower : Exemplary followers have a high level of active engagement and high level of independent critical thinking thinking. Characteristics of an exemplary follower include a willingness to take initiative, provide constructive criticism, assume ownership, and champion the goals of the organization.
• Conformist follower : Conformist followers have high levels of active engagement but lower levels of critical thinking. They are active “doers” who are often seen as team players. They’re willing to accept assignments and are trusting of leaders, but often they will put the needs of the organization over their own.
• Passive follower: Passive followers tend to fall on the lower end of both engagement and critical thinking. They follow the leader without question, but need consistent direction. They might be the kind of person who puts in their time, but little more, and they may believe that the organization and its leaders are uninterested in their ideas.
• Alienated follower : Alienated followers have high levels of independent critical thinking but are low in engagement. They often see themselves as people with a healthy level of skepticism, but others might see them as cynical and not a team player. They might feel like their leader doesn’t fully recognize or utilize their talent.
• Pragmatist follower : Pragmatist followers have moderate levels of engagement and critical thinking. They may feel like their work environment is full of uncertainty and tend to see where things go before they take action. They are sometimes perceived by others as people who play political games, but they typically see themselves as people who know how to work the system to get things done.

Did you place yourself in the exemplary follower category? Windham would recommend taking a second look. “A lot of people think they are innately exemplary followers when they’re really not,” he says. “85-90% of people tend to place themselves in the exemplary follower category, but that’s just not realistic. If you’re just honest with yourself about where you land, it makes it much easier to identify what your needs are and what types of workplace environments work for you.”

What does good followership look like?

There are entire books written on this topic, one being The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders by Ira Chaleff. Windham uses this text in his followership course. Here are a few high-level characteristics of good followers from Chaleff:

• Good followers don’t orbit around the leader; followers and leaders orbit together around a common purpose. They work in partnership committed to shared values and causes.
• Good followers are passionate about their work and the people they serve. If they experience a loss of passion for their work and organization, they’re not content to accept it as normal.
• Good followers will defend their leaders when they encounter complaints being made behind the leader’s back. But they will also respectfully challenge a leader if they present questionable ideas or behavior.
• Good followers will strive to be self-aware and seek feedback on their performance so that they can identify both strengths and areas for growth.
• Good followers may have their own interests, such as personal growth—but they ensure that their interests align with the mission of an organization, rather than compete with it.

How can leaders cultivate good followership in their teams?

There are many steps you can take to cultivate good followership, but Windham says understanding, acknowledging, and validating the values of your followers is key. “You want to genuinely become interested in the things that are important to your followers,” he says. “Then you can build relationships on that understanding.” Building genuine relationships based on your understanding of your followers’ values will help you cultivate trust, meet your followers’ unique needs, and ultimately lead your followers toward specific goals.

The values your followers hold will be both personal (e.g. family, travel, flexibility) and professional (e.g. development opportunities, an inclusive workplace, teambuilding), and in today’s society, the values our followers hold are incredibly diverse. But at the end of the day, it’s all about relationships, Windham says: “It’s about identifying who you are, who your followers are, and how those relationships work with each other.”

Level up your leadership skills at Bethel University by pursuing an MBA or a leadership foundations certificate . You’ll further develop your self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and the competencies necessary to lead people and organizations in new directions. 

Chaleff, Ira. (2009). The Courageous Follower: Standing up to and for our leaders. (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Riggio, R. E., Chaleff, I., & Lipman-Blumen, J. (Eds.). (2008). The Art of Followership: How great followers create great leaders and organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Cherie Suonvieri

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One element of leadership that’s rarely talked about is followers – it’s tough to lead without them! 

Now, we’re not talking about the millions of followers following Instagram influencers, but the followership displayed by high performing teams. And it may surprise you to discover that many of the qualities of good followership are the same as those required for leadership.

What is followership?

In its most basic form, followership describes the behaviours of subordinates – the leader’s team members. In the same way that effective leadership is less about command and control and more about support and deliverables, effective followership is less about following instructions and more about making a valuable contribution.

One of history’s most famous followers was Thomas Jefferson. Now considered one of the founding fathers of the United States, he initially was a junior member of the committee that wrote the Declaration of Independence . He was assigned the task of writing the historical document by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. It wasn’t until eight years after the Declaration of Independence was signed that his role was revealed.

There are two particularly interesting things about Thomas Jefferson as a follower. Firstly, he thought that John Adams should be the one to write the declaration, but Adams exemplified the leader-follower exchange by insisting that Jefferson was the best person for the job. Secondly, Jefferson went on to become the third President of the United States of America – one of the most senior leadership roles in the world.

What are the characteristics of effective followership?

There’s a great deal of crossover between leadership skills and the skills required for good followership. Five of the most important are commitment, communication, collaboration, credibility and competence. Let’s take a look at each of these qualities in more detail.

Effective leaders display high levels of commitment – to themselves, to others, to their organisation, to the truth and to leadership itself. Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes is a prime example of commitment in practice. Obviously, he was committed to the success of his start-up, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015.  But since then he’s shown a massive commitment to sustainable practices and even a commitment to himself and others to be more human .

Commitment is particularly important to the servant leadership style, where leaders prioritise their focus on followers above all else – including organisational concerns. So, to be effective in achieving organisational goals, these leaders depend on their followers’ commitment to organisational concerns. Success depends on a two-way exchange of commitment, highlighting the importance of commitment as both a followership and leadership skill.

Communication

Warren Buffet is known for telling business graduates that their qualifications will only get them so far in their career – real success depends on effective communication skills. In both leadership and followership , this often means listening more and speaking less. By listening attentively, followers can better support their co-workers in achieving strategic goals. Likewise, with leaders, after listening effectively, followers can offer generous and honest feedback that improves both leadership and organisational outcomes.

Warren Buffet is also famous for choosing something carefully and sticking with it. In 1979 he recruited Lou Simpson to help run his company, Geico. It began a long relationship of leader-follower exchange that only changed slightly when Simpson retired from Geico, 31 years later in 2010. 

Buffet wrote in his annual report that year that, "Lou has never been one to advertise his talents. But I will: Simply put, Lou is one of the investment greats. We will miss him.” 

The New York Times also described Simpson as disarmingly honest and someone who spoke with simple language about investments. No doubt, his compelling communication abilities contributed to both his followership and leadership skills over those three decades.

Collaboration

While it’s possible to be a leader with only one follower, it’s more common to lead a team. That’s because, even with only one follower, effective leadership and real followership will inspire more followers to join. 

The first follower helps to highlight the leadership skills of the leader, then as they discuss them with their colleagues and networks, they attract more followers. This is the principle of the first follower , made famous by Derek Sivers – and a very entertaining video from a music festival that perfectly portrays this idea.

While team building in an organisation is a bit different from the snowball effect of a daggy dance-off, the value of collaboration can’t be understated. As the old saying goes, two heads are better than one. And the power of collaboration increases with every additional follower.

Credibility

In 2018, Cameron Kasky and his classmates displayed remarkable leadership skills – four days after a former student killed 17 students and wounded 17 more at their school. Kasky and his fellow students announced the March For Our Lives protest to call for tighter gun controls in the US. Just one month later, up to 800,000 followers rallied in Washington DC, with more congregating at 880 sibling sites across the country. 

In addition to the lived experience of gun violence, Kasky and his friends had credibility. By organising and attending the protest rallies, their followers too displayed credibility.

Credibility is about walking the talk – ensuring your actions align with your words. As a leader, there’s no point telling team members to work towards the organisation’s strategy if you’re not willing to do the same. As a follower, there’s no point agreeing with that leader and then doing something completely different when you’re out of earshot.

The best leaders are those on the path to mastery . They excel in self-reflection to identify their weaknesses, then they take action to address those weaknesses through personal development. Competence is a leadership skill acquired through education, experience and a little bit of humility.

Competence in followership is equally essential. Once you achieve competence in your role, you’ll find that you have more time to develop more innovative solutions and to support leaders and other team members.

You can increase your competence as both a leader and a follower with Deakin’s Master of Leadership . In addition to identifying and analysing key leadership challenges in your workplace, you’ll build your skills and competence to deliver positive change – whatever role you’re in.

Learn more about Deakin's Master of Leadership . Get in touch with our enrolment team on 1300 043 524.

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Home / Essay Samples / Life / Leader / An Effective Follower

An Effective Follower

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• Topic: Administration , Effective Leadership , Leader

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