Followership. How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders

Citation

(2009), "Followership. How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 23 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo.2009.08123fae.001

Followership. How Followers are Creating Change and Changing Leaders

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 23, Issue 6

Barbara Kellerman,Harvard Business Press,ISBN 978-1-4221-0368-5

This is a refreshing change in direction from other leadership and management theories and writings. The book is part of the Leadership for the Common Good series – a partnership between Harvard Business Press and the Center for Public Leadership that aims to provoke conversations about the role of leaders in business, government and society, to enrich leadership theory and enhance leadership practice, and to set the agenda for defining leadership in the future. However, rather than taking a leader-centric approach, Kellerman focuses instead on followers and, despite their perceived lack of power, authority or influence, their ability to impact on those in leadership positions.

The book is divided into three parts. The first part, Seeing Followers, examines the fictions and truths about followers, relationships between followers and leaders, and the ways in which followers differ from one another. Five different types of followers are identified, organized by levels of engagement – Isolates, Bystanders, Participants, Activists and Diehards. The second part, Being a Follower, includes stories about followers who range from being completely complacent to completed committed, drawing on a variety of people and places from the multinational corporation Merck to Nazi Germany. The third, Future Followers, discusses a future where followers will have even more of an impact.

Kellerman defines followers by rank – subordinates who have less power, authority and influence than do their superiors, and who therefore usually, but not invariably, fall into line. She defines followership as the response of those in subordinate positions to those in superior ones. She argues that followers all over the world are getting bolder and more strategic and are less likely now to “know their place”, do as they are told or keep their opinions to themselves – representing a major change in followership. The message to leaders is that they ignore this change at their peril and that followers are becoming increasingly important all over the world.

Aimed at both followers and leaders alike, the book offers an interesting insight into organizational dynamics – both formal and informal – and a fresh perspective on leadership and people management. It would make an enlightening and stimulating read for HR teams tasked with helping leaders understand and adapt to those dynamics, and for leaders themselves.

This review was originally published in Strategic HR Review, Volume 8, Issue 3, 2009.