Followership!

The old saying goes, "we have too many chiefs and not enough Indians". In my one year assignment in Rome to attend the Italian Joint Services Staff College I was overwhelmed by this. To put it simply, with no followers there are no leaders. And as leadership must be developed so must followership. I never realized the importance of this until the staff college.

 The US Army develops followers and leaders concurrently. The idea is simple, when placed in charge - take charge, when not in charge follow the leader. This approach worked into unit or organizational culture is effective because it demonstrates to all how difficult leadership is and the importance of followership. The Situational Training Exercises (STX) is a great tool to flush out and develop these qualities when applied to a group.  The group simply rotates leaders per situation so each member gets to be a leader but spends more time as a follower.  It guarantees that all, to include, the smart ass who armchair quarterbacks the decisions of the leader that he/she will get a turn in the hot seat. This approach builds humility and respect for others (basically lets you know when to shut up).  Leaders-in-training should arrive ready to follow orders from superiors and at times follow the lead of peers. And, on occasion, the follow subordinates.. (we will discuss more on this later).

What does followership look like? Well, in its simplest form, it is compliance. The first action of the subordinate is to ensure he/she understands what is expected by listening and then repeating what is desired, back to the leader (kind of a backbrief to ensure you are on the same page of music).  Then the follower moves out smartly to execute the task. There is nothing wrong with offering suggestions to the leader, but in the end the leader is the one who will make the final call. Followership means doing what you are told in an expeditious manner. Followership means helping solve problems by way of the leaders vision. Followership means helping to organize the team while respecting the leadership position. Followership is absolutely not about advancing your agenda, it's about supporting and serving the leader of the group/team/company, they are the star of the show.. the rock star so to speak.. The band is the supporting cast - the followers.

Followership is not blind obedience.. No one should follow an incompetent leader off a cliff, there are some limits and legitimacy and influence are important.  No one is obligated to obey an immoral leader.  However followership needs to be a part of the leadership culture. There are many leadership lessons to be learned as a follower. Especially what it feels like to be at the bottom of the food chain.

Support your boss..  Good followership means supporting your boss.  His orders become your orders.  So there shouldn't be any of this, "we are doing this because the boss said so..."  Followership means you take ownership of the order.

I mentioned earlier that I attended the Italian Joint Services Staff College in Rome and was overwhelmed by too many, "Chiefs". My working group conducted weekly group exercises. It was always the same story. Monday morning at 8am the small group instructor would open the door and throw a packet on the table. He would point at the officer in charge, give a little guidance and walk out the door. The chaos began almost immediately. There was a quick ramp-up to full blown screaming and wild gesticulations amongst the students. The fighting went on for hours and sometimes days. And usually the same officer won because he was the loudest. He wore everyone else out. He applied no problem solving methodology, once everyone acquiesced he just dictated the answers without engaging the talents of others (this is not leadership or followership - it's garbage that produced the same one dimensional result every time). At first I was frustrated, but later came to understand that these officers have received neither leadership nor followership training. You can't expect results from untrained people. if you want to be a leader, you gotta start by learning to be a follower.