FOLLOWSHIP

“The longer I study effective leaders, the more I am convinced of the under-appreciated importance of effective followers.” That comment by leadership guru Warren Bennis, quoted by the authors of this article, neatly sums up their message. They argue that “followership” (not “followship” as in the title) has been neglected in comparison to leadership, that leadership and followership are not contraries but aspects of the same thing, and that the future trend is to light leadership and heavy followership. These concepts are closely related to Michael Useem’s “leading up” and to Jim Collins’ Level 5 leadership. With all the attention given to leaders and leadership, following has acquired a negative connotation. The authors ask: “Who would want to publicly announce that they are followers and not leaders?” In the management literature, followers are seen as reacting to leadership rather than the other way around. However, in today’s less-hierarchical, knowledge-based organizations, good followership may be even more important to organizational success than good leadership. Rather than being contraries, the authors contend that there is a continuum from leadership to followership along a spectrum. At the one end of the continuum, heavy leadership is combined with light followership; at the other end, light leadership is combined with heavy followership. Whether a leader will be light or heavy depends greatly on the heaviness of the followers he leads and vice versa. A heavy follower is able to lead upward; in other words, his followership involves leading. Heavy followers are active and engaged, taking responsibility for their followership. Light leadership is practiced at many professional services firms where the difference between leader and follower is already more fluid due to the different roles professionals have. Heavy followership or a light leadership, however, depends far more on attitude than on knowledge and experience. This means that even traditional manufacturing enterprises can adopt the light leadership approach. They simply need to empower employees by letting go of command-and-control methods, as illustrated by the experience at the Brazilian company Semco, described by Ricardo Semler in his two books. The authors state that, ultimately, there is no difference between following and leading because heavy followers and light leaders share the same traits: both listen well and emphatically to other’s points of view and have respect for those they are leading or being led. Furthermore, a good (light) leader should be able constantly to switch between leading and following. The authors conclude that “Following and leading are not roles or even mindsets, but internal activities within the same person who can switch from leading to following and back again in an instant.”