Followership And Engagement

Followers come in all shapes and sizes – whether they’re followers of an individual, a team, a brand or a belief – by definition, they are the loyal supporters. There has been a great deal of research into the nature of Leadership but its contingent aspect, that of Followership, has been far less well served. Not withstanding the seminal work done by Kelley et al there are still some very interesting debates to be had about the nature of Followership and how leaders/organisations can improve their Employee Engagement through a better dialogue with their followers.

Kelley suggested a possible spectrum of Followership styles from Passive Followers through to Exemplary (effective) Followers; however we think it is worth looking a little more closely at the contrast between Passive/Active and the impact of being Actively Negative v Actively Positive. On the table below we look at Followers down the left-hand side and compare this with Leaders and their ability to ‘actively’ listen:

The Passive & Silent: are the card-carrying, badge-wearing party faithful, who turn up for every game, pay their dues and are loyal even in the face of defeat. They will be there through thick and thin and have a strong impact simply through their support rather than their ideas or drive.

The Active & Negative: are the ones who appear to be the ‘moaning minnies’ - the regular complainers who can always find something to criticise and never appear to be happy (unless they’re moaning about something). Curiously, this group often behave this way because they are used to being, or expect to be, ignored or marginalised.

The Active & Constructive: are the ones who can be demanding, challenging and a royal pain in the neck – precisely because they do care, often passionately, and speak out not only to provoke a response (which is important) but because they think they can see a way to improve things. They can generate a creative synergy through their contributions and willingly engage with the leader’s/organisation’s vision and goals.

Some Observations:
From this model there seems to be some interesting areas of potential movement that Followers and Leaders can benefit from – for example, the Disillusioned Cynics could become Potential Converts with the right opportunity to make their voice heard and to see some direct action as a consequence of their input. In contrast, the ones who were Active & Constructive could easily become Potential Cynics themselves if they feel that their leaders say they’re listening but are in fact only paying lip-service!



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