How the world maintains balance by the other side of the equation.....

Greetings,

Welcome back as today we learn about followers. What is the term for it? You guessed it, followership ofcourse. Without this there is no leader and without a leader there is no follower. Well, what is followership? This concept basically means the capacity or willingness to follow a leader. Simple right? Well, it goes a little further in depth than that because of course we all know that there are different types of followers. This can easily relate to me because, well, we have all been followers including myself such as when I was learning to become a certified EMT and trained fire fighter I had to ‘follow’ with a good attitude and mentally appreciate the leader or whom was teaching me ‘the ropes’ of how to do things. Or take for example, I am in a biology group where there is the leader and she delegates the tasks for us to complete the project by its due date. Well now, let’s take a look at the different types of followers among us today.

First off, these types of followers will either prove to be inhibiting towards effective leadership, positive towards it, or neutral about it; here they are:
-Isolates: Do not care about their leaders, are not aware, are detached, do nothing
-Bystanders: Go along with the status quo (often when it is in their self interest), disengage, are aware but do nothing
-Participants: Invest a little to make an impact, free agents, and care somewhat
-Activists: Eager, energetic, engaged, feel strongly one way or another about leaders and act accordingly
-Diehards: Deeply devoted to their leaders or may want to oust their leaders, all encompassing commitment

All these concepts of followership really explain all types of followers in the given context of how they ‘participate’ in the group. An example of a diehard follower in our assigned reading text was Hitler’s right hand man, who after witnessed the dictator commit suicide, took upon himself and took the life of his wife and children before his own life. What type of follower are you? This relates to my life in the way that in most cases I am border line between an activist and participant given of course, what group I am in and how I feel about the way it is run and by whom.

In the end there are some guidelines as well to becoming an effective follower including: offering support to the leader, take initiative, show appreciation, keep the leader informed, and raises issues or concerns when necessary, and much more. The other concept examined was the “Leader- Member Exchange” Theory in which this includes explanation of quality relationship between the leader and follower. High levels of these types of relationships among the group provide higher levels of support and guidance from the leader and better follower satisfaction and performance. I agree with this as there is no “I” in team, but rather it takes the leader and the follower to make a positive difference.