No? Why not? Because we should all aspire to leadership, not improved followership? Those things are not exclusive, though. I know of no leader who is not following someone and/or something. In fact, we can go through life without ever leading anything, but we would be hard-pressed to avoid following.
Here is a start to what I would like to see in a book on followership.
- How to pick a leader. If I must follow, I might as well follow someone/thing worth following.
- How to support the leader. If the leader is leading me where I want to go, I want to do everything in my power to make him successful.
- How to lead and follow simultaneously. In any organization with more than 2 people, there is a very good chance I am leading someone at the same time I am following someone else. How do I live in the middle?
- How to influence the leader. I suppose this is similar to leadership stuff about "leading upward" and 360 degree leadership. It is hard to take someone seriously when they write about me "leading" my vice-president. Influencing, though, makes sense.
2 comments:
Absolutely!! Write the book.
If you master the 4 points above, you will succeed and be highly valued as a part of any organization. Numbers 1-3 can even be applied to a person's Christian journey.
We were talking at work today about the old adage, "There is no I in team.". Every team needs a leader, but sometimes there are too many Chiefs and not enough Indians. (Does this response have enough cliches yet?)
I believe that the most valuable asset to any leader is a team of good followers.
I'm rambling. You touched on one of my favorite topics!
@Cathy - thanks for the encouragment, but it'll be along wait for me to write the book.
You raise another question in my mind...if a leader needs good followers, is it the leader's responsibility to teach the followers how to follow? Is that part of the job of a leader?
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