A discussion of Leadership and Follow-ship

• Mission• Vision• Strategic plan

If you want one year of prosperity, grow

grain.

If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow

trees.

If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow

people.

— Chinese proverb

On average, leaders contribute no more than 20 percent to the success of most organizations

Followers are critical to the remaining 80 percent

The only time followers follow the leader is when the leader’s orbit and the follower’s orbit are in synch

Most people, whatever their title, spend more time working as followers than as leaders (more time reporting to people than having people report to us)

What is a leader?

How do leaders differ from managers?

What is a follower?

Can we have a meaningful discussion of followership without a discussion of leadership?

Why is leadership so important in higher education?

What about followership?

Why do you think the idea, and ideal, of followership is so difficult for us to deal with?

It is the job of the leader to grow the followers

It is the job of the followers to grow the organization

The mark of a great leader is the development and growth of

followers.

One mark of a great follower is the growth of leaders.

The manager administers; the leader innovates The manager is a copy; the leader is the original The manger focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on

people The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range

view The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why The manager has his eye always on the bottom line; the leader has

his eye on the horizon The manager imitates; the leader originates The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it The manager is the classic good soldier; the leader is his own person The manager does things right; the leader does the right things

Becoming a manager has much to do with learning the metaphors;

becoming a good manager has much to do with using the metaphors;

and becoming a leader has much to do with changing the metaphors.

-becoming a Leader

A leader must remember that he is on stage every day. His people

are watching him. Everything he says, and the way he says it,

sends off clues to his employees. These clues affect performance.

The leader is always on stage.

– Marcus Buckingham: First, Break All the Rules

The Leader is always on Stage

Honesty

Forward-looking

Inspiring

Competent

Fair-minded

Intelligence Enthusiasm Strong communication skills Initiative Energy Political astuteness And the two qualities listed most often by leaders:

Cooperation

Loyalty

Question: What “qualities” are missing?

Have no sense of vision:

“She constantly changes her mind about important issues. There is no consistent vision. Everyone is going in circles and nothing important ever gets accomplished.”

Refuse to listen:

“My president believes that he is always right. He simply will not listen. His body language, demeanor, and how he speaks to his staff constantly reinforce the impression that he knows more than anyone. After a while we just give up trying to contribute.”

Embrace exceptional followers as partners and co-creators

Partnership means sharing information

Partners co-create the vision and mission

Partners share the risks and the rewards

Create environments where exceptional followers flourish

Be less a hero and more a hero maker

Pragmatic followers Alienated followers Comformist Passive followers Exceptional followers

See “quiz” at end of presentation

Positive:

Keeps things in perspective

Plays by the rules and regulations

Negative:

Plays political games

Risk averse and prone to cover their tracks

Carries out assignments with middling enthusiasm

Believes that:

Staying within the rules is important

Should try to avoid uncertainty and instability

Positive:

Mavericks who think for themselves

Plays the devil’s advocate

Negative:

Troublesome, cynical

Not a team player

Believes that:

Their leader does not fully recognize or utilize their talents Extreme cases: Saboteur

Positive:

Accepts assignments easily

Trusts and commits to the team and the leader

Seeks to minimize conflict

Negative:

Lacks own ideas

Unwilling to make unpopular decisions

Averse to conflict

Believes that:

Following the established order is more important than outcomes

Positive:

Relies on the leader’s judgment and thinking

Seldom resists

Negative:

Just putting in their time, little else

Requires an inordinate amount of supervision

Believes that:

The organization doesn’t want their ideas

The leader is going to do what he/she wants anyway

Positive:

Contributes above and beyond

Seeks to add value and assist others

Negative:

Highly idealistic; can suffer disillusionment

Burnout

Believes that:

Their contribution is important … even essential

Job skills: How exceptional followers add value

Focus and commitment

Competence in critical-path activities

Initiative in increasing their value to the organization

Organizational skills: How exceptional followers nurture and leverage a web of organizational relationships with:

Team members

Organizational networks

Leaders

Values: How exceptional followers exercise a courageous conscience which guides their job activities and organizational relationships

Ira Chaleff introduces the idea of the “courageous” follower:

The courage to assume responsibility

The courage to serve

The courage to challenge

The courage to participate in organizational

change

The courage to leave

Leaders ache for followers who will show initiative

Assume responsibility for yourself … and your organization

Discover or create opportunities to fulfill their potential and maximize their value to the organization

Focus on the critical path

They assume new or additional responsibilities to unburden the leader and serve the organization

They stay alert for areas in which their strengths complement the leader’s and assert themselves in these areas

Courageous followers stand up for their leader and the tough decisions a leader must make if the organization is to achieve its purpose

The responsibilities of gate keeping

Focus the leader

Courageous followers give voice to the discomfort they feel when the behaviors or policies of the leader or group conflict with their sense of what is right

They are willing to stand up, to stand out, to risk rejection, to initiate conflict in order to examine the actions of the leader and group when appropriate

When behavior that jeopardizes the common purpose remains unchanged, courageous followers recognize the need for organizational change

They champion the need for change and stay with the leader and the group while they mutually struggle with the difficulty of real change

Focus on the goal, not the job

Do a great job on critical-path activities related to the goal

Contribute to the growth of other team members

Help keep the team, and the leaders, on track

Take the initiative to increase their value to the organization

Realize they add value not just by going above and beyond their work, but in being who they are—their experiences, ideals, and dreams

Support the leader’s decisions

Challenge the leader

Encourage the leader

Defend the leader

Work to increase the variety and complexity of assignments they receive Seek to enhance their skill sets Share the credit Never undermine their authority Mentor followers who hope to assume larger leadership roles Encourage and enhance dialogue Heighten their sense of accountability for the decisions they make Keep their confidences Empower them Acknowledge their value, both publicly and privately Reward them in ways they find meaningful Trust your followers

Rosabeth Moss Kanter cites four principles in which followers might become more powerful:

Give people important work to do on critical issues

Give people discretion and autonomy over their tasks and resources

Give people visibility and provide recognition for their efforts

Build relationships for your people, connecting them with powerful people and finding them sponsors and mentors

The reason that most change efforts derail is because they focus on processes

and not people. Systems won’t change if people won’t cooperate.

People are the gatekeepers of change.

Leadership is really not how we perceive ourselves as leaders –But, how those who follow perceive us.

PEOPLE MAY NOT REMEMBER EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID, OR WHAT YOU SAID, BUT,THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL.

Does your work help you fulfill some societal goal or personal dream that is important to you? Are your personal work goals aligned with the organization's priority goals? Are you highly committed to and energized by your work and organization, giving them your best

ideas and performance? Does your enthusiasm also spread to and energize your co-workers? Instead of waiting for or merely accepting what the leader tells you, do you personally identify

which organizational activities are most critical for achieving the organization's priority goals? Do you actively develop a distinctive competence in those critical activities so that you become

more valuable to the leader and the organization? When starting a new job or assignment, do you promptly build a record of successes in tasks that

are important to the leader? Can the leader give you a difficult assignment without the benefit of much supervision, knowing

that you will meet your deadline with highest-quality work and that you will ”fill in the cracks" if need be?

Do you take the initiative to seek out and successfully complete assignments that go above and beyond your job?

When you are not the leader of a group project, do you still contribute at a high level, often doing more than your share?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Rarely Occasionally Almost Always

Do you independently think up and champion new ideas that will contribute significantly to the

leader's or the organization's goals?

Do you try to solve the tough problems (technical or organizational), rather than look to the leader to

do it for you?

Do you help out other co-workers, making them look good, even when you don't get any credit?

Do you help the leader or group see both the upside potential and downside risks of ideas or plans,

playing the devil's advocate if need be?

Do you understand the leader's needs, goals, and constraints, and work hard to help meet them?

Do you actively and honestly own up to your strengths and weaknesses rather than put off evaluation?

Do you make a habit of internally questioning the wisdom of the leader's decision rather than just

doing what you are told?

When the leader asks you to do something that runs contrary to your professional or personal

preferences, do you say "no" rather than ''yes"?

Do you act on your own ethical standards rather than the leader's or the group's standards?

Do you assert your views on important issues, even though it might mean conflict with your group or

reprisals from the leader?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Rarely Occasionally Almost Always

Add the scores from the followingquestions (independent thinking): 1. _____ 5. _____ 11. _____ 12. _____ 14. _____ 16. _____ 17. _____ 18. _____ 19. _____ 20. _____TOTAL: _____

Add the scores from the followingquestions (active engagement): 2. _____ 3. _____ 4. _____ 6. _____ 7. _____ 8. _____ 9. _____ 10. _____ 13. _____ 15. _____TOTAL: _____

Ira Chaleff, in The Courageous Follower, notes that the

term follower “conjures up images of docility,

conformity, weakness, and failure to excel. Often, none

of this is the least bit true. The sooner we move beyond

these images and get comfortable with the idea of

powerful followers supporting powerful leaders, the

sooner we can fully develop and test models for

dynamic, self-responsible, synergistic relationships in

our organizations.”

Bennis: Organizing Genius

Buckingham: First, Break All the Rules

Carlyle: On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History

Chaleff, Ira. The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders

Greenleaf, Robert K. Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness

Habecker, Eugene B. Leading With a Follower’s Heart

Kelly, Robert E. “In Praise of Followers,”

Harvard Business Review

———. The Power of Followership: How to

Create Leaders People Want to Follow and

Followers Who Lead Themselves

Kriegel, Robert. Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers

Robbins: Why Teams Don’t Work

Sevier, Robert A. “How to Be An Exemplary Follower,” Trusteeship