The Leader's Kitbag - Building Followership

Your role might give you the title of team Leader, Head of X or Director of Y, but if you've got no real followers, then I'm afraid to tell you, you've not really got a team. So, having looked at the definitions of teams and work groups in this latest series of the Leaders Kit Bag, we're now going to touch on the idea of followership. In order to be an effective leader, we need to focus on developing our followers, their followership skills, if you will, as well as their own leadership capability. And that's exactly what we're talking about in today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. Hey, I'm Ben Morton. I'm a leadership trainer, executive coach and keynote speaker. So if you or your wider organization needs help or support in any of those areas, please do get in touch as I'd love to have a conversation.

So to today's episode, the Leader's Kit back There is a lot to be said about effective followership. So today I'm going to focus in on just three key elements and let's dive in. Number one, Followers are clear about their responsibilities. Effective followers are clear about their roles and their responsibilities. And if they're not, they will ask us or even work directly with their peers to gain the clarity that they need in order to be successful. But the reality is this rarely happens organically or by itself. It is therefore our responsibility as leaders to to set unambiguous goals and objectives whilst at the same time encouraging our people, our followers, to ask if they're not totally clear.

The leadership behaviours that enable this include slowing down and asking ourselves a very simple question before communicating. That question is where is the scope for confusion in what I'm about to say or write? Because there always will be.

It also involves asking questions to test understanding. This is different to asking if there are any questions.

What I mean by this is when we say does anyone have any questions? And we don't receive any, we assume that silence means people are clear. But the reality is more often than not that silence simply means people didn't want to ask a question for fear of looking stupid.

Number two, effective followership is built on good two way communication.

Great followers speak up, ask questions and share ideas. They don't just blindly follow orders, instructions and directives, but leaders must foster and develop this through regular and relevant communication.

This is about real dialogue, not just one directional updates. And the leadership behaviours that facilitate this include listening with a truly open mind and genuine curiosity rather than merely listening to speak, which sadly happens so often. In the workplace.

And point number three around effective followership. Great followers challenge flawed plans in a constructive manner. This is what the author Ira Chaliff calls intelligent disobedience or the willingness to speak up when something feels wrong.

For this to happen leaders must create a psychologically safe environment, openly welcoming, intelligent and relevant challenge.

Explaining decisions and being willing to adjust course themselves when required.

The leadership behaviours that enable this are focused on thanking people for challenging us, for modelling respectful disagreement or healthy challenge and perhaps most importantly not becoming defensive when we are challenged.

So that's it for today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. Free tips and insights on what great followership looks like and more relevant for you. Hopefully more helpfully for you are the leadership behaviors and ways of thinking that will enable you to develop great followers. Thanks for listening as always look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time folks, lead on.