Followerfist Leadership Style

1. When discussing leadership and followership, there is often a split in personal opinion when it comes to which one is more important. Leadership and followership both offer unique benefits in their own right and have supporting factors, which give them the perceived appearance of being more important. The focus for this paper will be to advocate the importance of followership over that of leadership. This will be accomplished by addressing the pros of followership to include some core skills of followership and the effects followership has on the development of a leader. The expectation of an officer however, places a high amount of emphasis on leadership more so than that of followership. Given this perceived importance of leadership as an officer, an effective leadership style will be explained and how officers develop this particular leadership style. While leadership has a distinct presence within the professional work environment, followership is considered the underlying backbone in developing an effective high performing team.

The concept of followership is crucial to the leadership process today. In the past, followers were not viewed as important whatsoever. They were viewed as puppets that had no potential to make a change. In the new paradigm, followers are just as important as leaders. There are several behavioral styles of followers: alienated, conformist, pragmatists, passive, and effective.

Urban Meyer is the head coach for The Ohio State Buckeyes football team. He is 49 years old and was born in Toledo Ohio. He attended University of Cincinnati where he played football. Coach Meyer is married and has three children. Prior to coaching Ohio State he retired from coaching was working as a sports analyst for ESPN. Before retiring and working for ESPN, Coach Meyer was the head coach for the University of Florida. He led the Gators to two BCS championship wins and he held the highest percentages of wins for any active college football coach. (www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com).

In followership there needs to be a leader that inspires and bonds followers together as a unit moving in one direction. Today’s leader has to be more than someone that was placed in a position of authority, a person with a title and a higher salary level. A real leader is found when the behaviors and attitudes of their

“Servant leadership is the most interactive style of leadership when it comes to leader/follower engagement, since the primary emphasis for attaining organizational goals is based on serving the followers tasked with achieving those goals” (Gandolfi et al., 2017, p.

As a good follower, I need to accept responsibility and I need to be aware of the tasks that I have to take on. I have to readily support my leader at all times and I should be able to voice my opinions to my leader in a very supportive way. Leaders can only lead an organization successfully if they have personalities that appeal to their followers. The individual reflection and big five

Based on what I learned from the Leadership and Followership module, the one concept that is most important to me is Followership because Jesus invited his disciples to “Follow me,” not to “Come lead in my name,” and in a world preoccupied with leadership, what should we make of that invitation? Taking a look at the example He left for us, it fits right in line with the definition of followership from the lesson: One in service of another; one that follows the teachings of another; one that imitates another. Think of the impact we would have on our subordinates, peers, and supervisors if we all followed that example of followership.

The ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said that,” A leader is best when people barely know he exists; when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” (Shinagle, 2013). The importance of a leader in among people cannot be underestimated. The paradox of Lao Tzu’s words is only an indication of how someone who is traditionally inclined to be at the helm of affairs is subdued and assumes the position of the least represented. To be a leader, Robert GreenLeaf said, a person must be servant first. (Greenleaf, 1970). A servant leader is arguably a person who seeks the welfare of his followers first before his own welfare. That selflessness is characteristic of most servants who do their best to make sure their superiors are satisfied. Servant leaders have the same attitude towards their followers; except they do it willingly and are not usually coerced.

The concept of followership has existed for decades, but only in relatively recent times has the idea received more attention. The dictionary definition of the word followership is “the capacity or willingness to support a leader”.

A leadership philosophy helps to define and let others know what you expect, what things you value, and how you act as a leader. Different styles of leadership are needed for different situations. Every leader needs to know when and how to display a particular approach of leadership within a group. Leadership strategies define every leader’s personal leadership style. Three leadership styles of a counselor are the following: authoritarian style leaders, democratic style leaders, and laissez-faire style leaders.

Servant-leadership is widely researched and discussed from a secular and Christian worldview (Fischer, 2010; see also Blanchard & Hodges, 2005). A Christian is called to follow God in all he does but life experiences can be conflicting in dealing with the spiritual and secular context; however, Christ wants his followers to operate within the context of the secular world. True servant-leadership is to emulate how Jesus led those around him - with complete selflessness and by serving others. Moreover, it is challenging for humans to be servant-leaders as they often desire

Chapter one portrays the importance on followers and provides some insight and labels different types of followers. Riggio et al (2008), provides examples on the various styles of individuals as followers, for instance, the sheep, the yes-people, the alienated, the pragmatics, and the star followers. Furthermore, these classes of followers provide a better understanding to leaders on why one performs in an organization.

I never considered the word follower this deep. When I think of what a follower does I automatically think in terms of being a Christian and following the word of the Lord. A website that I went to had a blog post called, The Seven Types of Followers. The author writes about the seven types: “Loyalists-The genuine supporters, Sycophants-The flatterers, “yes people”, Critics-The opposition, Opportunists-The freebooters, Spectator’s- do their job nothing else, Traitors-The silent haters and conspirators, and Realists-provide constructive critical thinking and interact with the group and the leader.” (Hyacinth, 2014).

Effective followership is an essential component of effective leadership in that, without good followers, the leader’s work is difficult and cumbersome. The role of the follower is many times understated. As illustrated by Kelley (1998), “effective followers are thinkers; energetic and assertive, self-starters, independent problem solvers, and carry out their tasks with these characteristics (p. 143). Effective followers also are characterized by their ability to perform tasks with little supervision, their intelligence, and ability to think for themselves. We are all followers, even those who consider themselves leaders; so to encourage this effectiveness in others; we must be role models for those under us, so that they may also be effective at following. Chaleff (2009) observed that “all important social accomplishments require complex

Finding a leadership style is like finding the dress or suit that fits just right. It may take several attempts, but once you find the one that fits, it is usually the one you will keep. For this class, we were asked to take a 50 question survey from Kent University to help us figure out what type of leadership style fits us best. From the results provided from the test, my leadership style was typed as participative. When reading more about participative leadership, I saw a quote I was able to resonate with completely, “The leader makes the final decision, but the team to contribute to the decision-making process” (How to find, n.d.). This quote made me realized that this type of leadership fit me down to the T. In terms of effective communication, I always make an effort to make sure the listener absolutely understands what I am conveying. By asking questions or bringing up any concerns they might have, I am able to make sure that everyone is on the same page. My job presents several opportunities to help teach and train new operators. By having a participant leadership style, I must ensure new operators know how to work within their position proficiently. As a trainer, I deal with trainees who at times feel overwhelmed with the plethora of information given to them. I find it important to give encouragement and facilitate training when need be. Being a participant leader requires a great of humility: “The leader can 't know everything”