“What compels one to abandon their individual autonomy and subscribe to another’s authority, and then to provide their best effort in support of that authority when there is no extrinsic motivation?”
I began my exploration of followership as result of my duties with the US Army. Now, I am applying a more deliberate process of discovery that I expect will influence the way I, and others, see the role of followers and how we understand our own followership attitudes. Understanding followership from the follower’s perspective changes the conversation about leadership/followership from “how can I make the team more effective or efficient?”, to “how can I be a better member of the team?”. As I continue exploring the idea of followership I am especially interested to learn how my findings align with my current ideas on followership. I believe that at least four characteristics represent followership:
- One who exhibits “followership” commits their best effort to ensure the success of the individual they have elected to support (“follow”).
- Followership is not dependent on extrinsic motivators like rewards, recognition, or incentives, and therefore is independent of the individual being “followed;” followership is represented in the attitude and behaviors of the “follower” without regard to the leader or the task.
- Followership is not enhanced or degraded by organizational policies or procedures, although opportunities to act may be limited by such policies and procedures.
- Followership requires commitment to the higher objective and not the individual who is fulfilling the leader role.
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