We spend all of our time in the specialization talking about leadership. That's because, quite frankly that's what gets the attention of employers and managers. Listing yourself as a good follower doesn't get a lot of attention on your resume. But it's worth taking a few minutes to talk about the role of followers and how important they are to the effectiveness of team. So let's take a few minutes to look at the role of followers. Throughout your career, you will always be a follower in one form or another even when you are occupying leadership roles. The chances are that you're going to be a follower much more often that you are a leader. Without leaders or without followers, leaders don't exist and leaders can't fulfill their roles in the organization. When we look at the desirable qualities of a follower, they're going to look very similar to those attributes that we've given to leaders throughout this specialization. Most importantly, good leaders will know how to develop good followers and good followers will help them in that process. Robert Kelley in his article embrace a followers in a Harvard Business Review described different kinds of followers. He first described what he would call the qualities of effective followers. Self-management was the term that he used to describe independence, when we think about the language of Steven Kobby, it meres that very closely of being independent. It also follows very closely the language of Peter Senge, the fifth discipline work that he did of describing self-mastery. Good followers are committed to the actions that are going to be done within the team. They have energy to devote to accomplishing a goals of the organization. They have the skills and aptitudes needed to accomplish the task for the team. And lastly, they have the courage to stand up to authority when it's necessary and the leader needs feedback on either ethical or technical decisions that might come out of the team. Kelley went on to describe five different kinds of followers, and he plotted them on an axis of activity versus independence. If we look at the horizontal axis here that would be considered the activity axis and the vertical one would be independents. He described first of all those who are low active, low independence, as being very passive, and as sheep in the organization. The people in this category require a significant amount of attention from the manager, because they are looking for direction in which way to go. He described the highly active but low independence people in the organization as yes people. These followers typically demonstrate the characteristics of good followers except that they lack the courage to stand up to authority when it's necessary. These he referred to as the yes people in the organization. Midway on the activity and independent scale, Kelley described the group of people who will follow once others have taken the lead. They are not naturally inclined to seize the initiative and move on. He called these the fairly pragmatic followers in the organization. He then described those that are high on the independent scale but low on the activity scale. This tend to be the people that he called alienated and frequently in the organization are those that demonstrate passive-aggressive behaviors. They can be very pessimistic and they can become obstacles to the performance of the group. Lastly, we have the fifth category of followers that Kelley described as exemplary. These are the followers in the organization that demonstrate all four of the characteristics that he attributed to good followers. Self-management, commitment, competence and courage. The followers in this category tend to be able to stand up to authority, they are recognized by their peers as having credibility and confidence. I would add a sixth category to this particular box that I mark with this gold star. These would be the people that are not only exemplary but exhibit what Steven Covey would call interdependence. They are able to get work done within through others in as synergistic manner. So it's worthwhile asking, can a follower move from one box to another in this matrix? I feel that as a leader, yes, that any follower can be with the right coaching and counselling move from one box to another. I think that's obvious from some of the examples that I have seen in my own experience, where an exemplary employee can become frustrated because of poor management, poor leadership that they observed and actually move from that top right box to the alienated box. The reverse is obviously possible with the right performance, coaching and counselling. In that regard, it worth asking the question, how can leaders interact with followers to make those changes? What are their expectations? So let's look first at the exemplary employee. So let's take a look now at what constitutes an exemplary follower? What did they do that distinguish them from other followers? First of all, they tend to present a very consistent picture of how they perform. They show that independence, they show that they develop networks across the organization, and they demonstrate that courage to stand up to authority when necessary to ensure that good decisions and ethical decisions are made within the organization. Secondly, they're exemplary because their goals align with those of the organization. They are strong advocates for the mission of the organization and acting ways that clearly support the direction that the team is going. So how can a leader influence and encourage the followers in their organization? The first is going to be to know how to coach followers so that they can best contribute to the team, that they can align their goals in such a way that they reinforce the direction the team is going. That comes through setting goals appropriately, and we described that previously, and it also comes from coaching and counseling. The leader also encourages followers to help him make good decisions. Whether they're ethical or technical choices that need to be made within the team, the leader encourages followers to act in ways that they contribute their ideas to the progress of the team. The leader encourages followers to extend their networks to broaden their understanding of the organization and ways that they can contribute. This helps access needed resources when the team comes to solve problems creatively. And awareness of the organization will help team members bring those resources to bear to solve problems when it's appropriate. The leader will want to encourage his or her staff to have a realistic view of what the leader's capabilities are. The leader will also want to ensure that they create an environment where the followers are free to offer their opinions, to offer their views and perspectives. And have an open conversation environment, that means that it is okay for the follower to disagree occasionally. Now that we have examined the roles of followers, let's keep those in mind as we examine ways to launch creative teams. And ways that we can motivate and encourage those teams to become high performing ones.
