4 posts tagged “leader”

This is the first of three articles looking into the concept of “Followship”.

There are many books and articles that have been written about leadership, and how to become a great leader, but what about “Followship”, how can you encourage people to become great followers? After all it is important to recognise that successful leadership can only be achieved if there are fruitful interactions between those who lead and those who follow. Nevertheless many organisations focus their attention on leadership development with what appears to be an assumption that their staff will instinctively know how to follow.

So what are the characteristics of effective Followship? Interestingly they share a number of elements that are similar to effective leadership. For example followers:

· Lead and manage themselves effectively.
· Are highly participative.
· Show commitment to the organisation and what it’s trying to achieve.
· Model effective follower roles and behaviours.
· Continuously learn and develop.

Followers are not simply “sheep”. “Sheep” are passive and uncritical, lacking in initiative and a sense of responsibility. Effective followers are highly participative, critical and independent thinkers.

Further, research suggests that those who prove able to follow effectively, usually transition to formal leadership positions over time. This demonstrates the interactive nature of the leader/follower relationship.

For organisations to be truly successful they need both effective leaders as well as followers, but how can organisations develop effective Followship? This issue will be discussed in the following articles.

Being a successful leader with valuable leadership skills can a be difficult role to maintain. Success can be a step towards stress and burnout as the pressure of being a high achiever drives us to try even harder. Here are a few ideas to help maintain balance and survive your own success.

1. Learn to relax. Give yourself a break and take time out to relax and enjoy your success – you deserve it!

2. Know your limitations. It’s important to remember that success doesn’t mean perfection. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and trying to be good at everything can water down your impact.

3. Don’t be paralysed by indecision. Decisions lead to consequences and action, but not making decisions will lead to inactivity and organisation paralysis.

4. Give yourself a pat on the back. Leading a team can be a lonely experience and so it’s important to validate yourself. Note down your achievements and read them whenever you can to reinforce successful behaviour.

5. Learn to fail. At some point you will take a “fall” – this is inevitable. However, have confidence in your abilities, learn from it and move on.

6. Be a mentor. Establish yourself as a coach or mentor to others. Some may be jealous of your success as a leader, but by helping them to achieve will reduce their negativity towards you.

7. Don’t micro manage. Your success as a leader will not last if you over control your team’s tasks. It is vital to trust other people to do what you used to do. Delegate and give them freedom to achieve.

8. Have a laugh. A sense of humour is very important, particularly in difficult or stressful times. Being able to smile lifts others and shows your self deprecating style.

Maintaining success as a leader is difficult, but achievable by following these few simple tips. If you wish to find out more about how to be a successful leader try the following books:

• The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner.
• Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters by Jeffery Somerfield and Andrew Ward.

How can an organisation identify its future leaders today?

Identifying future leadership potential is a complex issue; however there are a number of steps an organisation can take to improve its ability to identify its future leaders. The first step in the process is to define the characteristics needed by future successful leaders.

Some of this information may be collected by looking at the characteristics of successful leaders in the organisation. These characteristics may include:

- Thinking style, capability and intelligence

- Personality trails

- Behaviour and interactions with others

- Experience

- Self motivation

- Ability to learn.

Once the characteristics have been identified a number of different techniques and activities can subsequently be used to assess them, for example:

- Critical thinking, numerical and verbal reasoning tests can be used to ascertain an individuals thinking capability and potential. The results from these tests can be benchmarked against other successful leaders.

- Psychometric profiling instruments can identify an individual’s personality traits, likely communicating and leadership styles. How do these fit with what the organisation needs?

- 360° feedback tools are valuable for assessing an individual’s performance and behaviour in the workplace. While not a guarantee, historic performance behaviour will be a guide to how the individual is likely to perform in the future.

- Assessment Centres during which an individual undertakes a range of group and individual leadership tasks can provide a good deal of information about an individual’s personal motivation and how they lead themselves.

- Personal challenges, for example by leading a business improvement project or charity/fund raising activity that will take the individual outside of their comfort zone and give the organisation a view of how they handle new and unfamiliar challenges.

While the above techniques will not guarantee identification of the leaders with the greatest potential, they will provide the organisation with a good deal of objective information on which decisions about leadership potential and leadership training and development can be based.

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