Nudge – What Is Followership?
For this weeks’ Leadership Nudge I want to talk about followership. Followership is embedded in the concept of leadership, but what is followership?
Here’s what it is. Let’s say you have an organization and you have three levels of leadership. You have the top leader at level 1 and leaders at levels 2 and 3. Each of these people is a leader in making their own decisions on how to follow the principles of the organization. This includes the leader at the top. They are all leaders, but they are also all followers. They are all following the principles. This is the correct approach.
The incorrect approach is what we see too often. It is where followership means I follow you, and you follow your boss, and there is no connection with the principles. We often say there is, but in reality there is very little to no connection. That is not followership that is Feudalism.
My leadership nudge to you this week is this:
Take some time this week to do a little critical self-assessment. Ask yourself this; am I following principles or am I following personalities. Let me know how it goes.
