Why followership?

Why followership? I’m often asked this when I talk to people about the research I’m doing and the workshops I run. Looking back, the seeds of my fascination with followership and how we follow well in organisations began early.

I moved a lot as a child. My father’s ambition – for which I’m grateful, he moved beyond the confines of a small coal mining village and across the world – kept the family on the move. By the time I finished primary school I’d lived in three countries, 9 houses, and attended 5 schools. This made be very good at being the “new person”. Actually, I hated being the new person. I tend to be introverted and as a child I was painfully shy. I did get very good at working out “how they do things here” – excellent training for someone interested in how organisations and the people in them work. Add a strong dose of Sunday School and some core values develop:

·         Everyone is valuable

·         No one should be left out

·         Those with title or status or power are not intrinsically more important than those without.

Organisations (whether work, school or wherever) need everyone’s contribution, not everyone plays the same role. Good things happen when everyone plays an active role which shifts and moves. This is a dance of leading and following, of stepping up and stepping back

My first full time job after finishing uni was as a management trainee in a large retail group. My Arts degree knowledge of English literature and political theory may not have been the most practical preparation for this role. I learned lots. The ladies I worked with were patient with me and were (mostly) happy to be “managed” while letting me know when I didn’t know what I was doing.

One incident stands out. One of the team had been a manager - doing a similar job to the one I was training for and she had recently decided not to continue in that role. She knew how to do things that I hadn’t learned yet and one day I needed some technical help. I asked her what I needed to do, she walked me through it, and the job got done. All was well. Except that I was reprimanded by a more senior manager. Apparently, the person I’d gone to had mentioned to her colleagues that I’d asked for her help. (no, still can’t see the problem). It seemed that I’d violated a rule about “us” and “them”. (Oh, the hierarchy thing…)

Even at the time, when I was very inexperienced, it didn’t make sense to me that managers and staff  shouldn’t work together. That managers, especially new managers, couldn’t know everything and that the people with experience knew a great deal. It never occurred to me that asking for help could “reduce my standing”.

I’ve had many jobs since and worked with lots of people, as their manager, as a team member, reporting to unit directors and CEs, and as a colleague seeking to influence without positional authority. I still believe that the title means much less than the ability to listen, and learn, and work together whether a leader or a follower.

One of my jobs was in a large unit in an Australian university. I reported to the Director and for various reasons the person who filled that role changed often. Six people were appointed to, or acted in, the Director role over a period of four years!

While the Director’s office door was revolving, the unit’s work still got done. Sometimes we worked in collaboration with the Director (and sometimes we worked in collaboration to engage with the Director as little as possible). It was often difficult for the managers within the unit and for the team members they led.

Despite this plans were made and implemented, targets were met, stakeholders were communicated with. Could the unit’s work have been done better, more productively, and with less angst if there had been consistent, high quality leadership and support? Yes of course. However, this lack didn’t prevent good work and good outcomes.

There has to be more to organisational success than good leadership. I think we over emphasise the importance of the manager or the leader. We don’t pay enough attention to what the followers do in order to get good work done.

That’s why I find followership fascinating. It’s why I’ve researched the impact effective followership has on organisations and I’m sharing the importance of followership in professional development workshops.