Leadership through Followership

Leadership through Followership

Shane Moison 24 Jun 2009 00:44

All the talk in class today about leading and following reminded me of a concept the Navy taught me in a Naval Science class I took recently. The concept is that in order to be a good leader you must be a good follower. The Navy's thought process behind this is that the traits of a good leader are very similar to those of a good follower. I have included a link to a Powerpoint many NROTC instructors use when teaching this concept. The first half of the Powerpoint is about followership/leadership. The rest covers senior-subordinate relationship. I'm curious to hear what your opinions are of this concept.

http://www.unm.edu/~nrotc/ns407/NS407%20Spring05/AZ05.Followership%20and%20Loyalty.ppt

Re: Leadership through Followership

Jameson L 24 Jun 2009 02:17

One thing about that presentation that stood out to me was the one slide, i think it was 6, that named the different type of followers. In class we talk about followers not really realizing that there are different types of followers like the slide said, sheep, effective followers, alienated followers, ect. The sheep are the kind of followers that depend on the "shepherd" and look for guidance because without the shepherd the sheep would not know where to go. I compare the sheep type of followers to the crow tribe, with their leader being plenty coups. The tribe had to look to plenty coup for guidance and would have had a very hard time without him as their leader. The effective followers relate to the students that followed Jim Lawson and did the freedom rides and sit ins. They seem to be effective because they share a common goal with the leader and are willing to do what they are told to be able to achieve that goal. The alienated followers seem to relate to the kind of followers that Machiavelli speaks of. They are not treated as individuals but rather as a whole so individually they are alienated. So even though in those different situations they are all followers, they are all very different types.

Re: Leadership through Followership

Shane Moison 24 Jun 2009 22:33

I am really impressed by Jameson's comparison of the ideas in the slides to the topics we discussed in class. I hadn't even thought of it in that sense, but I comlpetely agree with his assessment. I think it makes the idea of being a follower to be a leader easier to understand.

Re: Leadership through Followership

jaredhs 24 Jun 2009 22:48

I agree with your assessment, Shane. I think Jameson's comparison of the different types of followers talked about in the Navy presentation with our three models of leadership in class is insightful.

One point I wanted to add to Jameson's analysis: Another thing that distinguishes "effective" followers from the other types of followers, aside from their dedication to a common cause, is their willingness to criticize (constructively) their leadership. In "alienated" relations between leaders and followers, or fearful relations, there is no room to criticize, as the followers either feel like they can have no impact on the leaders, or they are too fearful of the consequences of openly disagreeing with their leaders. This potentially critical relationship between leaders and followers is similar to the idea that Joe highlights in the post directly below this one about knowing how to "disagree agreeably." Such disagreement is only possible on the background assumption of mutual trust.

The Greeks had a term for the type of criticism that a follower must bring to bear upon his/her leaders: "parrhesia," which roughly translates as "frankness" or "courageous speech." (Some people translate it as "fearless speech"—but I think that's perhaps too loose of a translation.) Any ruler or leader that punishes followers for their "parrhesia" runs the risk of surrounding himself with flatterers, and he/she thus never hears the truth. I think this lack of frankness is one of the things going on in that first scene of Henry V. What do you all think?

Last edited on 24 Jun 2009 22:49 by jaredhs Show more

Re: Leadership through Followership

Joe Moses 24 Jun 2009 05:58

Note in slide 3: "Know how an effective leader encourages correct behavior, suppresses fear, and attends to a subordinate's needs." Suppresses Fear. The recognition that fear is maintained is key in developing leaders and followers. Diane Nash may have been a good follower unknowingly, because of the meetings she attended, and the interest she had in her cause.

Most of the key points had mentioned key qualities of followership like being approachable, disagreeing agreeably, self-management and tact. These things seem to be things we have observed from some of our class examples. I think Plenty Coups is a perfect example of disagreeing agreeably. Because his methods of 'saving' his people are still being debated, it seems the argument has come down to whether or not he did more than Sitting Bull in terms of actual preservation of his people. The fact that he worked an agreement out with the government and still was able to keep some of his peoples traditions intact leads me to believe that disagreeing agreeably, in the face of what is considered the failure of his people, would have been something he did. He seemed to have said both yes and no, which is why I think there is so much to discuss about his actions.