Leadership v Followership: Managing Followership

Mike Ihezuo

Can I talk to you on term that is unEnglish yet being mentioned from time to time on public domain as if it can be treated as a subject? That term is followership.

Leadership goes hand-in-hand with followership and is subsumed in leadership, hence cannot be a standalone.

Leaders become leaders because of followership. Absolutely! Let me quickly say that “QUALITY OF FOLLOWERSHIP IS AN ASSET TO THE LEADER”.

The more docile and stupid the followership is, the more useless the leadership will amount to, the more advantage a despot leader take of the people. But leaders don’t have their way easy like that until they discover a docile and sycophantic followership.  But let me assume for a moment that the leader may not be evil intentioned or planned to be a Mussolini of Italy, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Idi Amin of Uganda, Emperor Bokassa of Central Africa, the man of Yemen, Lenin of Russia, Adolf Hitler of Germany, including that wicked DG, GM, CEO or MD; just say a despot, he or she, I mean the leader can MANAGE FOLLOWERSHIP EFFECTIVELY. (Sorry, I’m being funny ( wrong) using my friend, Apostle Gerald Ogbonna’s way of speaking – ‘manage’).

MANAGING FOLLOWERSHIP

Unlock, unleash Managing Followership Effectively using these few KEYS (for more, CALL);

1. Key#1. *Dialogue and listening skills are basic requirements – critical key*. A leader strives to involve the team in decisions and design through dialogue.

2. Key#2. *Recognition: Leadership is also about recognising, that someone other than you is the leader from time to time, and that you should follow him or you ruin you*.

3. Key#3. *Learn to engage followership through team or through representative*. Engagement is based on involvement. Ask the team and strong followership an idea instead of fighting for your stripes and pulling/tearing rank.

4. Key#4. *Encourage their feedback, and let them challenge you to have better idea than you*.

5. Key#5. *Respect their pace, approach, ideas, and thoughts*. Most likely you cannot see all solutions, problems, or opportunities, respectful feedback and input if you disagree or have valuable from your chair. The team might even be smarter than you, use it, than being antagonistic.

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