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Leadership & Management
Discussion for Lesson 18:
Followership
Lesson 18
Reading Objectives
1. The student will comprehend their followership style and
take steps to become a more effective follower.
2. The student will comprehend and apply the principles of
courageous followership, including responsibility,
service, challenging authority, participating in change
and knowing when to leave.
3. The student will comprehend developing personal
potential to include the Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People.
Lesson 18
Discussion Objectives
1. The student will apply the principles of
courageous followership, including
responsibility, service, challenging authority,
participate in change and knowing when to
leave.
2. The student will comprehend developing
personal potential to include the Seven Habits
of Highly Effective People.
The Courageous Follower

Courage is found in both effective leaders and
followers:



Willingness to take risks, challenge authority and to
believe one’s own ideas are superior typically marks a
follower as a future leader.
Follower role includes responsibility, service,
challenging authority, participating in change and
knowing when its time to leave organization.
These components of followership require courage.
Role of the Follower
 Leadership
and followership are
fundamental roles that individuals shift in
and out of under various conditions.
 Followers’ influence upon a leader can
enhance or underscore shortcomings in
the leader.
 Many qualities desirable in a leader are
the same qualities possessed by an
effective follower.
Role of the Follower (Cont.)
 Courage

to assume responsibility
Courageous followers:
• Do not presume that a leader or an organization
will provide them with security, permission to act or
personal growth.
• Initiate opportunities for personal fulfillment, growth
and the fullest use of their capabilities.
Role of the Follower (Cont.)
 Courage

to serve
Courageous followers:
• Discern the needs of the organization and actively
seek to serve those needs.
• Support the leader’s decision, providing strength,
complementing the leader’s position and serving
others’ display of follower’s courage.
Role of the Follower (Cont.)
 Courage

to challenge
Courageous followers:
• Do not sacrifice the purpose of the organization or
their personal ethics in order to maintain harmony
and minimize conflict.
• They stand up against leaders and decisions when
that behavior contradicts the best interest of the
organization or their own integrity.
Role of the Follower (Cont.)
 Courage

to participate in transformation
Courageous followers:
• View the struggle of corporate change and
transformation as a mutual experience.
• Support the leader and the organization during a
difficult transformation.
• Are not afraid to confront change and work toward
reshaping the organization.
Role of the Follower (Cont.)
 Courage


to leave
Often organizational change creates a
situation in which a follower must withdraw
from a leader-follower relationship.
Followers are not afraid to depart because
they do not rely on leaders or organizations
for their self-worth.
Styles of Followership
 Robert
E. Kelley described five styles of
followership categorized according to two
dimensions:

The first dimension is the quality of independent,
critical thinking, versus dependent, uncritical thinking:
• A dependent, uncritical thinker does not consider
possibilities, does not contribute to the cultivation
of the organization and accepts the leader’s ideas
without thinking.
Styles of Followership (Cont.)
 The
second dimension is active versus
passive behavior:


An active individual participates fully in the
organization.
A passive individual is characterized by a
need for constant supervision.
Styles of Followership (Cont.)

Dimensions result in five Followership styles:





Alienated Follower: Passive yet independent, critical
thinker.
Conformist: Active participant who does not utilize
critical thinking skills.
Pragmatic Survivor: Has qualities of all four
extremes, depending upon which fits situation.
Passive Follower: Exhibits neither critical,
independent thinking nor active participation.
Effective Follower: Critical, independent thinker and
active in the organization. Future leader.
Sources of Follower Courage

The courage to accept risk derives from several
sources:





Strength from personal philosophy/religious beliefs.
A vision of the future can provide courage to follow
difficult course of action.
Past event that tested individual courage can make
future courageous behavior easier.
Personal values can give one the courage to act.
Commitment to peers, deep concern for others and
outrage toward injustice can foster change.
Developing Personal Potential
 Steven
Covey defines a habit as the
intersection of knowledge, skill and desire.
 He arranges seven habits along a
continuum from dependence to
interdependence.
Developing Personal Potential
(Cont.)

Each habit builds on the previous one so
individuals grow further along the maturity
continuum as they develop personal
effectiveness habits:



Dependent people expect someone to take care of
them and blame others when things go wrong.
Independent people have developed a sense of selfworth and an attitude of self-reliance.
Interdependent people realize that it is best to work
cooperatively with others.
Developing Personal Potential
(Cont.)
 Covey’s
first three habits deal with selfreliance and self-mastery. These are private
victories; they only involve the follower:
Habit 1: Be Proactive®
• Be responsible, don’t blame others.
Habit 2: Begin With The End In Mind®
• Start with a clear mental image of your destination.
Habit 3: Put First Things First®
• Focus on preserving and enhancing relationships and
on accomplishing results.
Effective Interdependence

The first three habits build a foundation on
independence, from which one can move to
interdependence—caring, productive
relationships with others which Covey calls
public victories.

When a person moves to interdependence, s/he
assumes a leadership role.
Effective Interdependence (Cont.)
Habit 4: Think Win-Win®
• Implies understanding that without cooperation, the
organization cannot succeed.
Habit 5: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be
Understood®
• Requires a nonjudgmental attitude. Emphatic
listening gets inside another person’s frame of
reference.
Effective Interdependence (Cont.)
Habit 6: Synergize®
• Synergy is the combined action that occurs when
people work together to create new alternatives
and solutions. The essence of synergy is to value
and respect differences.
Habit 7: Sharpen The Saw®
• Process of using and continuously renewing the
physical, mental, spiritual and social aspects of life.
Next Class
 Groups
and Teams
 Read: Leadership & Management,
Chapter 19
Summary

Follower role includes responsibility, service,
challenging authority, participating in change and
knowing when its time to leave organization.

Developing Personal Potential:
 Covey defines a habit as the intersection of
knowledge, skill and desire.
 He arranges seven habits along a continuum from
dependence to interdependence.
 When a person moves to interdependence, s/he
assumes a leadership role.
Summary (Cont.)







Habit 1: Be Proactive®
Habit 2: Begin With The End In Mind®
Habit 3: Put First Things First®
Habit 4: Think Win-Win®
Habit 5: Seek First To Understand, Then To Be
Understood®
Habit 6: Synergize®
Habit 7: Sharpen The Saw®
Questions?
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