Embracing Followership

How to Thrive in a Leader-Centric Culture

Allen Hamlin, Jr.

• Publisher: Kirkdale Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781577996330
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

We live in a leader-centric culture. We're constantly bombarded with advice on how to achieve leadership positions or how to lead well once we get there. We've made leadership out to be the mark of success. But what if leadership isn't our goal? What if we want to do well where we are? Can we use our skills to perform with excellence--as followers?In Embracing Followership, Allen Hamlin Jr. shares from his own experience how you can succeed as a follower without anyone reporting to you. You offer unique contributions to every group you're a part of, and you don't need to be a leader to make a difference.

Part 1

MISCONCEPTIONS AND REALITIES OF FOLLOWERSHIP

There are many strands of misconceptions about followership. These strands have been woven together in our lives, communities, and cultures—to the point that they almost guarantee no one would choose followership as an arena for personal growth.

Our task is to disentangle these strands from our perspectives about ourselves and other followers.1 Each strand is composed of a variety of threads, and the particular combination of threads that have contributed to your perspective may differ from those that have woven themselves into someone else’s.

But for the sake of simplicity, I will focus on the three strands that have most significantly affected our thinking and practice: (1) followers’ thoughts about followership (i.e., themselves), (2) leaders’ thoughts about followership, and (3) followers’ thoughts about leadership. These perspectives have shaped our systems, expectations, and relationships in ways that have often led us to de-emphasize the importance of cultivating excellence among followers.

The primary responsibility for participation and the pursuit of excellence lies with us, the followers. We are not simply victims of the world system or the leadership juggernaut that is so prevalent around us—we are a party to it. Therefore, we both begin and end this section by examining the strands of thought that originate within ourselves as followers.

2

FOLLOWERSHIP ACCORDING TO FOLLOWERS

As a follower, you’ve likely heard slogans or mantras that paint a picture of what a right and valuable life looks like. Have you internalized these ideas and allowed them to become defining factors in how you see yourself? If so, then they have shaped your motivations and contentment—or your lack of motivation and sense of discontent. In what ways do these ideas affect your feelings about your current position, title, or involvement?

Many of us sat through graduation speeches that rang out, “You are the leaders of the next generation!” Most of us have been told “everyone is a leader,” or perhaps even more specifically that “all wives/husbands/athletes/citizens/Christians/nurses1/managers/visionaries/teachers are leaders.”

Although there may be some layers of truth in these slogans, for me they primarily served to create an internal sense of what I wasn’t and what I must become. They set an expectation—one that may have been external initially, but that I quickly adopted as my own—for what my contribution, role, and life should be.

These expectations naturally led to comparison. I evaluated myself against those who clearly were leaders, noting which of their qualities I lacked or which of my own qualities seemed unfitting for someone predestined to be a leader. For a time, I struggled vainly to assert that I was a leader and should be acknowledged as such, though my title, role, and contribution were to the contrary. In search of an internal sense of value, I struggled to find a way to consider myself a legitimate member of the leadership class so esteemed by my culture.

“No one is a failure or less important because he or she is deemed a follower” (Follower First, 21).

My own thoughts about followership were keeping me from following with excellence. And I’ve since discovered that I’m not alone in this. Here are four significant threads of misconceptions that we followers have about ourselves—ones I personally had to identify and replace with realities before I was free to truly follow with excellence.

Misconception: Leadership Is the Goal of Followership

The first misconception I developed was that I must make leadership my personal goal and ultimate aim—with the unspoken corollary that being a mere follower is not good enough.

To be a person of passion, ambition, enthusiasm, concern, influence, and excellence, I thought I needed to attain a leadership role. Once I had achieved a title, I would know that I had sufficient skill, experience, wisdom, and intelligence to make an impact. Until then, everything about me was suspect. Sure, we all have to start somewhere, but if I remained a follower for too long, people would raise serious questions about my value and abilities.

I believed leadership should not only be my primary goal, but also my standard of personal evaluation. I assessed my worth based on how close I was to a leadership position in light of how long I had been affiliated with a particular team or group. Not that my boss would evaluate me this way, but my internal self-regard was tied to whether I was on the leadership track.

Misconception: I’m a Follower Because I’m a Coward

Leadership is strenuous work by all appearances: Leaders endure significant stress, make difficult decisions, engage in confrontations, and receive blame. But I began to wonder if by staying contentedly in my follower role, I was actually escaping or avoiding hard work. If I stay in the background, away from the front lines, I protect myself, escape injury, and keep my uniform nice and clean. Does that make me—whether by nature or personality—a coward who is fit only for a follower role?

Misconception: Followers Have No Authority or Influence

I have my own tasks and projects as a follower, but ultimately I have no authority, right? And without authority, do I lack influence as well? I may be able to prompt action with my emails or stir up problems through my negligence—but the real players are the ones with authority and influence.

If I’m content in my role as a follower, am I setting aside any real possibility to positively affect and shape the organization and people around me? As author Omokhai Imoukhuede notes, “few people associate followership with influence,”2 and this perspective is found among followers just as often as it is among leaders.

Misconception: Followership Lacks Honor and Dignity

We all have to admit things to ourselves. We have to stand in front of the mirror and confront—and accept, to some extent—who we are. But would I feel content to know my gravestone preserves the memory that I “followed well”? Can I phone Mom and tell her that, yes, I am still in relatively the same position as I was eight years ago? My own experience leads me to agree with this statement: “We don’t have a lot of people who know how to follow and feel significant.”3

Many followers suffer from a sense of shame. Admitting that we are a volunteer and not the coordinator, that we are a constituent and not a decision-maker, that we are the assistant and not the executive (though perhaps the “executive assistant”) can serve as a point of humiliation, of feeling not quite good enough. Uttering the words is akin to affirming defeat, placing a stamp of authenticity on others’ suspicions that we are somewhat mediocre. We may have a slot on the roster, a position in the ranks, a chair in the room, but we aren’t the captain, the commander, or the chairperson.

Misconception: Leadership Is the Goal of Followership

Reality: Followership Is Intrinsically Valuable

What truth stands against the misconstrued notion that I must be oriented toward attaining a leadership role? To begin with, I realized that while some societies may choose to elevate leaders to near heroic status, in the end, leaders are just people. Although much of Western cultural mythology tends to ascribe a legendary status to leaders because they “perform remarkable feats,”4 followers are the essential supporting actors, without whom a scene is lifeless. Who wants to watch a lone actor on the big screen without others to play against, to fill in the details, to provide a backstory, and to establish a real, vibrant ensemble with which to create a powerful, artistic expression for reaching a wider audience?

Leaders may have characteristics, skills, and experience that I don’t have, but then I, too, have qualities they lack. Whether considering education, previous employment outside of my current field, or administrative talent, I have come to see that everyone has a unique set of gifts, abilities, and experiences that can contribute to the group’s projects and purpose.

Sometimes people’s qualities are best employed in a position that requires taking responsibility for others and representing the corporation, organization, or community. I have found that my contributions don’t necessarily benefit from such a platform, and they certainly don’t require it. Instead, I have worked to shape my contentedness through the concept of “enoughness.”5 I want to make use of my skills and to engage in work that reflects my values and passions. I desire to serve, and my position gives me the opportunity to do so; what need do I have for a title?

Misconception: I’m a Follower Because I’m a Coward

Reality: Being an Excellent Follower Takes Courage

Only recently have I begun to oppose this myth about cowardice in my own life. At times I have had to push myself to speak up and act with courage.6 I’ve had to make decisions about what is ethical and determine how to communicate while being sensitive of others. Being a follower certainly doesn’t exempt us from hard work or difficult decisions.

Ira Chaleff’s book The Courageous Follower addresses the inherent need, role, and responsibility of followers to act with bravery—amid risk—as they successfully fulfill their role. He notes, “Follower is not a term of weakness but the condition that permits leadership to exist and gives it strength.”7 Cowardice and weakness aren’t inherent to followers—action and engagement are.

Misconception: Followers Have No Authority or Influence

Reality: Followers Can Exert Real Influence

As children, we all learned that despite having absolutely no authority over our parents, we could certainly exert plenty of influence. Our whining, stubbornness, and demands all served as weapons of manipulation to produce our desired outcomes. But these are examples of self-serving, short-term, and ultimately negative manifestations of influence. Is it possible that followers can contribute to a more positive outcome, even without having ultimate authority?

“The society in which I live, both secular and sacred, urges me upward to the next rung.… The problem is … there is always another rung above. And soon the endless rungs become the only thing by which we measure ourselves” (Whatever Happened to Ordinary Christians?, 15).

Even from a young age, we receive significant conditioning about the notion of leadership. While we are children at home and students in a classroom, “others are held responsible for our behavior, but we are not held responsible for theirs.”8 My teachers were charged with overseeing my actions, achievement, and welfare, and I was not at all responsible for their effectiveness and well-being.

The norm is that influence, authority, and responsibility flow downward, not upward. Such a perspective can actually lead us followers to overlook opportunities to exert influence and take personal responsibility, sometimes with disastrous results.9 At the very ...