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Within current organizational cultures, where the emphasis is largely on leadership and few are happy embracing the follower role, follower development is a tough sell. Business schools, executive programs, and bestselling books all recognize the importance of leadership skills, viewed as critical for the success of organizations. Yet while the leadership industry has focused heavily on the role of a leader, followership has received limited attention in management development. In fact, the term “follower” is often linked to negative images or demeaning words, like “weak” or “conforming”.
Leadership and followership
There is a common assumption that the wealth of an organization exists principally in the heads of its employees; on the contrary, when the top leader goes bad, the fish rots first from the head. In other words, poor leadership leads to a declining organization. Certainly, leaders have an impact on the followers, and they can be responsible for the decay in their company (Pelletier, 2010). However, leadership cannot exist without followership and leaders need followers to implement their strategy. Leadership and followership work both ways – they are two sides of the same coin. According to Kelley (2008) – one of the most influential scholars and pioneers of followership research – followers contribute 80 per cent of the success of an organization, while leaders only 20 per cent. By considering the nature and importance of the follower, he argued that effective followers can think for themselves and accomplish their job duties with independence, enthusiasm, and effectiveness. Likewise, the etymology of the word “follower” is enlightening, as it suggests that followers usually accompany and move in the same direction. Good followers derive greater satisfaction, remuneration, self-actualization, and other...