What about Followership ?
Here at ALIA we discuss a lot about Leadership and related subject, but we tend to omit that it isn't one dimensional. I mean that there's no need for Leaders if there's no Followers.
Depending on the context and as appropriate I contribute by playing both role.
Wouldn't it help to better understanding/sensing what Authentic Leadership is, if we explore what Authentic Followership is ? I'm seeking here your help to put both into perspective.
Would this be useful for others as it is for me ?
Depending on the context and as appropriate I contribute by playing both role.
Wouldn't it help to better understanding/sensing what Authentic Leadership is, if we explore what Authentic Followership is ? I'm seeking here your help to put both into perspective.
Would this be useful for others as it is for me ?
Tags: Followership
Views: 6
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Stephan R. Sengupta on -
Hi John,
I understand that some may have an issue with the term 'follow'. Since it is the commonly accepted word I will continue to use it. However, I suggest you read it as 'fellow'. ;-))
In fact the more I try to define and understand what is Leadership and try to put it into perspective with its complement Followership, the less it is clear to me.
I must admit that the word Leadership is a buzzword as well as a fuzzy word. My conclusion is that Leadership is like a ladder. A ladder is not so much made to discuss about it but to climb on it, to experience it.
Depending at what level of the ladder we are, we may be both leader and follower.
Having said that, there are as many definitions of leadership as there are management schools. Very interesting to note that there is no leadership schools.
Basically, we will find following distinctions :
Meta-Leadership (leaders inspiring other leaders)
Organizational leadership (both leading an organization or a leading organization)
Interpersonal leadership (our aptitude to interact with other)
Personal leadership (Knowing our-self : Beliefs, Values, Identity, Mission, Vision and being congruent)
I like to compare leadership with the strange attractor of the theory of chaos. Through value/sense and congruent action the leader becomes the support of the projections of the followers. The followers are attracted by what the leader represents for them... and soon or later you have a complex systems that emerges.
In that sense the 'follower' is a 'fellow' that follows shared vision/values and contributes to what he feels making sense to him.
Here is the metaphor of the stonecutter :
One day I went to visit a stonecutter workshop.
There where three stonecutter, all three very busy cutting stones.
I asked the first one : What are you doing ?
He replied : Don't you see that I am cutting stones ?
I said : Obviously, but I mean what for ?
He replied : Well you know we all have to work to pay our bills.
I went to the second one and asked : What are you doing ?
He replied quite enthused : I'm cutting the porch that will form the covered entrance of the new villa of Robin Williams.
Finally, I asked the third one : What are you doing ?
He replied with a certain light in his eyes : I am building a Cathedral !
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Permalink Reply by Elva Castaneda de Hall on
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Hello, Stephan!
The 30-year research of my company, Values Technology, Inc shows a connection between personal values priorities and the leader style. It is one of our assumptions that the 'followership" determines the leadership. In other words, if one is dependent, we get an authoritarian leader. We define leader style according to the followership.
I am looking to make a clear distinction for myself between Leadership and Leader. Ideas, anyone?
Please find attached Dr. Brian P. Hall's Hall-Tonna Values Map where we make the distinction between Goals values (ideals) and Means values (containing skills and competencies). It is a developmental model but also integrates Existential and New Physics principles.
I welcome comments and questions. Warmly, e
www.valuestech.com - Attachments:
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Permalink Reply by Rex Barker on -
I am fascinated by this discussion and wondered if anyone has read David Bohm's essays "On dialogue"? An early premise was that to engage in discussion there needs to be a "leader", and then I remembered Bohm's description of dialogue and how it differs from discussion or conversation. In my experience one way a person can liberate creativity and innovation as well as change is to facilitate dialogue. In such a dialogue there is merely the intention to share thoughts and ideas without any sense that you should judge or rank ideas. Through gaining a broader understanding of the different meaning and assumptions place on an issue a, somethimes new, understanding arises that has common meaning. A key requirement for authentic leadership is the ability to enable internal motivation to arise and gel.In this sense you could say that the emergent leader has shown both follwership and leadership in a very compassionate and mature way.
Rex
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I resonate with what you have written, Rex.
What you and Bohm describe assumes values priorities in the Hall-Tonna Map - Phase III - Self-Initiating (5 and 6).
We can measure whether a person or group has these values (capacities).
Cheers, e
Rex Barker said:I am fascinated by this discussion and wondered if anyone has read David Bohm's essays "On dialogue"? An early premise was that to engage in discussion there needs to be a "leader", and then I remembered Bohm's description of dialogue and how it differs from discussion or conversation. In my experience one way a person can liberate creativity and innovation as well as change is to facilitate dialogue. In such a dialogue there is merely the intention to share thoughts and ideas without any sense that you should judge or rank ideas. Through gaining a broader understanding of the different meaning and assumptions place on an issue a, somethimes new, understanding arises that has common meaning. A key requirement for authentic leadership is the ability to enable internal motivation to arise and gel.In this sense you could say that the emergent leader has shown both follwership and leadership in a very compassionate and mature way.
Rex
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Permalink Reply by Rex Barker on
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I am touched by the replies and inspired to add some more. I have been an operational manager for much of my life and at the age of 62 had another of what has been a series of progressive "insights" into who I am and what life means for me. I have always had a sense of where I was going, accompanied by an obstinate streak that encouraged me to make my own call when it came to values, beliefs and ethics. One ability that seemed to be of increasing value to others was that of articulating a vision for both myself and an organisation - a sense of what was possible for us all. I was inspired and humbled by the response once a clear "vision" had been embraced by stakeholders in a venture. In many ways it is this element that I don't see or sense in the vast majority of organisations I work with today. The idea that carrots and sticks are all we have at our disposal is totally crazy. Many writers and people in business have written about the importance of internal motivation, and yet the very item that makes this possible is lacking - vision.
The challenge that we need to explore once we accept that the lack of vision is a fundamental barrier to successful leadership/followship is - What are the barriers to changing our perception/understanding of current reality and adopting a new paradigm, that vision creates the pull into a future we all desire?
In my life I have had the honour of working with many cultures, nations, tribes, people and each has given me the experience of a different way of living in the world. From capital cities to aboriginal tribes the variety has been amazing and inspiring, and there was always another perspective to shape and guide my experience. In Krishnamurti's terms I was always willing to drop what I knew and learn afresh, which often was a frightening challenge. I was also aware that I had a competitive streak within me that could easily ambush my best intentions. I am now working with an international group that require you to demonstrate personally whatever you seek to offer others. By this I mean, if I want to explore creative leadership with a person or organisation, I have to show them what that entails in every step I take in my interactions with them. What happens then is not so much that an explicit measure is made but rather a sense of confidence and attraction to the concept arises that pulls them towards the new idea. I always worry when someone says there is a measure for a capability, because a really creative person can find a means to score well against a measure, but their ability to embody it can be less. Here I am thinking of Bateson's work on what I understand to be the psychological levels of personality - linking environment, behaviour, skills etc to identity. To be a follower we have to know who we are at the deepest levels of ourselves, and for me this is the question that cannot be answered easily and represents a better test of potential than anything else so far.
Love R
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Permalink Reply by Stephan R. Sengupta on
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Hello, Elva!
The assumptions that the "followership" determines the leadership and the Hall-Tonna Map gave me the insight that it has a certain link with the process of maturity and with the Spiral Dynamics.
Maturity process as per Transactional Analysis from Eric Bern :
1. dependence / I'm not OK, others are OK (--)
2. counter-dependence / I'm not OK, others are not OK (-+)
3. independence / I'm OK, others are not OK (+-)
4. interdepence / I'm OK, others are OK (++)
Spiral Dynamics is a theory of human development from the psychology professor Clare W. Graves. Ken Wilber has popularized these ideas in a series of books.
Making mine your assumption, I feel that the "followers" are empowering the leader that corresponds to them according to their maturity or developement.
From here the distinction between Leader and Leadership is quite obvious. The leader is the leading person or team, whereas leadership designates the type or style that the leader is using according to the level of his own developement or maturity as well as the level of his environement/context/followers. Both are resonating or in syntony.
Extrapolating this to Authenticity, I now understand that is corresponds to "Interdependence" and with the level Yellow/Turquoise of the Spiral Dynamics.
As I wrote previously if Authentic Leaders and Authentic Followers are interdependant, then only remains Authenticity.
For me the word "Interdepence" refers to sunyata... and further to altruism, compassion.
Warmly,
Stephan
Elva Castaneda de Hall said:Hello, Stephan!
The 30-year research of my company, Values Technology, Inc shows a connection between personal values priorities and the leader style. It is one of our assumptions that the 'followership" determines the leadership. In other words, if one is dependent, we get an authoritarian leader. We define leader style according to the followership. I am looking to make a clear distinction for myself between Leadership and Leader. Ideas, anyone?
Please find attached Dr. Brian P. Hall's Hall-Tonna Values Map where we make the distinction between Goals values (ideals) and Means values (containing skills and competencies). It is a developmental model but also integrates Existential and New Physics principles.
I welcome comments and questions. Warmly, e
www.valuestech.com
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Permalink Reply by Rex Barker on
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Hi Elva,
I have been working in the area of leadership and leaders for a while and, for me, the most obvious distinction is that Leadership is a complex set of appropriate skills and capabilities in action whereas a leader is a term we use for the person who exhibits those skills in that moment. For me these skills can be seen as a wave motion, coming in and out of influence as the situation unfolds. In an autocratic style there is no flow, it just is very controlled and controlling - stifling creativity as everyone is reduced to the competence of "the Leader". With a creative Leader, and in creative teams, we see the ebb and flow as the changing situation calls for different skills and abilities. In my military career I saw this as the difference between the special forces team work and that of a conventional army battalion. To add to this my sense is that Ken Wilbers ideas and others on the development of maturity and a sense of self are critical. The ability to recognise and proactively manage your thoughts, feelings and actions is, for me, a critical step in managing a larger group of people. I have always believed that the essential task of any manager, and moreso for the leader, is to create space. Space to mess up, learn, explore options and find a solution that will work. Too often I sense that managers and poor Leaders believe that there is a "right" answer or solution instead of considering the many solutions that will achieve the result.
Leaders - I feel we can help people explore within themselves and discover what it is that inspires and energises them - not an easy task as most people with real leadership potential I have worked with can handle criticism but baulk at praise, and shy away from self praise. Where they do have a vision and the energy and courage to act on their vision - leadership follows (pun intended)
Leadership - For me this is the study of what has been observed in certain situations and forms the basis for understanding what has worked well, but opens the door to exploring and discussing what other options may have been useful. For the individual leader this is often of limited value because inspiration often comes from outside the logical thought process. Sometimes the notion that leadership is a role can be the very issue that inhibits inspiration, as is the idea that people look to a nominated leader for "leadership" in a situation where they clearly are struggling with the issue.
Personally I found that the day I decided to ask my team for their thoughts when we faced a novel challenge was the day I discovered what follower/leadership was all about. I hope this rambling response has some value for you Elva
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