Introduction
In the last couple of decades leadership is a subject that has fascinated a lot of people. Thousand of books and articles are written about this topic, but still they cannot get a hold on this phenomena, because thoughts and ideas change by the moment and also the way leaders perform their leadership role, change constantly and is depending on the person and the environment in which the leader is performing.
In my research to understand this phenomena I found an inspiring clip of three minutes in which Derek Siver, an entrepreneur, explained what leadership is and how a movement is created. In this speech he showed a clip of a (shirtless) dancing guy who created a movement without knowing it. In his speech he pointed out five steps of how a movement is created and how leadership works;
– Leaders need the courage to stand alone and look ridiculous, but what he is doing must simple and almost instructional. It must be easy to follow.
– Then comes the First Follower. He has a crucial role, because he publicly shows how to follow and imitate the “leader”. The leader need to embrace the first follower and threat him as an equal. The First Follower transform the loner into a leader!
– The second follower is the turning point, because it proofs that the first follower has done a great job.
– Make sure it is public and outsiders can see it and it is not about the leader alone. Everyone must see the followers, because new followers emulate followers and not the leader.
– As more people participate it is no longer risky to join and the more people join, the more you are ridiculed for not joining. And there we have a movement.
Derek Siver emphasize on the fact that not the leader should get all the credits, but that the first follower is the most crucial part of making the weird loner into a leader. Without the courage of the first follower the leader would still be dancing on his own. In this paper I will elaborate on this vision and try to justify and expand it with literature and interviews.
In the next part of the paper I will give a literature review about the topics of leadership and followership theories.
Literature review
“Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things.” Peter F. Drucker.
The question of what leadership is and how the perfect leader looks like keeps people busy for centuries. Plato already questioned which qualities distinguish an individual as a leader, but still we do not know which qualities makes an individual a good or even a great leader. Scholars tried to discover and research leadership styles, -traits, -behavior. Fascinated by successful leaders like Winston Churchill, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mohandas Ghandi and Nelson Mandela, but also leaders of big multinational, scholars attempt to define their styles and traits so that future leaders can emulate these qualities. Most of the researches are mainly focused on the leaders self, but the power and the importance of the followers are neglected.
In this research we will focus on the importance of the followers and especially the importance of the “First Follower”. We will investigate the importance of this first follower and how leaders are aware of the importance of these people. In this part we will discuss relevant prior theories about this topic.
Leadership
Leadership is one of the most relevant aspects of the organization of today. Leaders formulate the strategy and determine the path a business need to follow. The two most domination models in the present literature are: instructional leadership and transformational leadership (Steward, 2006). Instructional leadership focuses on goals, the curriculum, instructions and the environment. Transformational leadership models focus on restructuring the business by improving the conditions. In this research we will focus more on the transformational leadership, because we believe that leadership is a social interaction between the leader itself and his follower. With instructional leadership the focus is more on practicing power on minorities instead of motivating and stimulating like transformational leadership.
Burns (1978) arques that although leadership is in large number present in the literature. There is not one central concept of leadership. According to him leadership must be aligned with a collective purpose and that they must be judged by their capability to make social changes. He argues that the role of the leader and its followers must be united and that the process of leadership is the interaction between conflict and power. In his book “Leadership” that he published in 1978, Burns distinguished two types of leadership; Transactional- and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership (Burns, 1978), in which an exchange takes place between leaders and followers represent the most common and traditional model found within most human groups. Leaders are given power to perform certain tasks and have the power to punish or reward for performance. Transformational leadership (Burns, 1978) motivates its followers to perform and to achieve certain goals. Communication is more important than with transactional leadership. According to Burns leaders are neither born or made, but instead leaders transform out of a structure of motivation, values and goals. He defines leadership as; “ Leaders inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations – the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations – of both leaders and followers.” (Burns, 1978, p.19)
In 2003 Burns wrote another book as an expansion to his first book in. This book is called “Transforming leadership: A new pursuit of happiness”. In this book he examines people who he considered to be very important leaders. In this book he is focusing more on the psychology, which was lacking in his first book. He argues that, to understand leadership, we must examine human needs and social change (Burns 2003). “Transforming leadership begins on people’s terms, driven by their wants and needs, and must culminate in expanding opportunities for happiness.” (Burns, 2003, p.230)
Jim Collins (2001) did a research to discover why a company turned from good to great. In this five year research, were they investigated 1435 Fortune 500 companies, they found that only 11 companies could meet up with the criteria of “great company” and that these companies were led by unique persons with specific characteristics. He called them “Level 5 leaders”. These leaders are humble and unpretentious. They often call their success “luck” or the work of others. They are calm, shy and they do not want to receive public recognition for their performance. These leaders stimulate themselves to do whatever it takes to achieve great performance and they seek for successors that will continue on in their success. Level 5 leader do not tend to abdicate the problem to other, but they are critical to themselves and they maintain their faith that they will recover with commitment and perseverance.
Bass (1998) did his research on transformational leadership by military, business and educational organizations. He identified 4 components of transformational leadership which could be measured with specially developed questionnaire called Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ); Charismatic leadership; refers to the way the followers admire the leader and see him as a role model. They are respected and the followers want to emulate him. Inspirational motivation; refers to the way leaders behave in ways to motivate, stimulate and challenge others or their followers. These leaders have a strong vision and they demonstrate a commitment to the goals and the shared vision. Intellectual stimulation; Transformational leaders constantly bring up new ideas and ways of doing things and they encourage others to be creative and they do not publicly criticize others. Individualized consideration; refers to the way leaders pay attention to the need for development of their followers and their potential. They establish a supportive environment were differences are respected. Interaction is encouraged and they are aware of individual concerns.
In his leadership model he also includes three typologies of transactional leadership;
- Contingent Reward; In this dimension the leader delegates and then rewards the people who performed these assignments.
- Management by exception; In this dimension the leader monitors the employees and then corrects them if that is necessary.
- Laissez faire; Leadership does not exist and leadership behavior is ignored.
He believes that every leader performs each of the above called styles and traits. He calls this full range of leadership model. They practice transformational qualities, but also transactional qualities. But to be a great leader Bass implies that leader should use more frequently transformational components than transactional. These two approaches are opposites of each other, but they can also be complementary. Leaders need to be admired by their followers. They need to serve as a role model and possess a certain amount of charisma, to generate and implement significant change (Zaleznik, 1992).
Albert Einstein said once that a problem could not be solved in the same level of consciousness that created has created the problem. So a leader should bring the community or organization into another level of thinking or in another consciousness, but how do you achieve good cohesion within your community? Venable and Gardiner (1988) identified six characteristics of shared governance which must be hold.
– A climate of trust;
– Information sharing;
– Meaningful participation;
– Collective decision making;
– Protecting divergent views;
– Redefining roles (all members are leaders).
Especially the last characteristic is important for transformational leadership, because all members must be viewed as equals/ leaders or else it is more transactional than transformational leadership. But just like Bass (1998) said leaders need to find a balance between the different leadership styles and approaches. Besides the last characteristic of the list, the other points are also more towards transformational leadership than transactional leadership. These characteristics all insinuate that transformational leadership is the most effective style for successful shared governance.
Followership
“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done, because he wants to do it” Dwight D. Eisenhower.
For centuries leadership is seen as the most admirable and important position within a community. Thousands of articles and books are written about leadership, but the followers are been underestimated and understudied. Meidl (1987) argues that the concept of leadership is romanticized. The literature is full of studies of leadership styles, performance, characteristics etc., but the role of the followers is rarely discussed. That is strange, because just like Derek Sivers said, without followers there can be no leader and you are just a weird loner. Leaders only accomplish something with the permission of the followers (Depree, 1992).
Today’s literature on followership can be distinguished into three theoretical areas; Followers motivation, follower values and trust and the characteristics of ineffective and effective followers. I will discuss these three areas in the next part of the paper.
Follower motivation
Nowadays the follower – leader relationship shows us that followers want trust and they are not motivated by what leaders think they want, but rather by what each individual follower wants (Bain, 1982). Followers motivate themselves and the only thing the leader has to do is communicate trust and respect for the followers abilities to perform than the internal motivation of the followers takes over and drives them to achieve success (Hughes, 1998). Of course there are factors that influence the relationship between the follower and the leader, but the key to motivation is the concept of have the followers realize how important their function is.
Green (2000) discussed under which circumstances followers are highly motivated. He found three conditions which are very important to create an environment with highly motivated followers. First, the followers must have the confidence that they can carry out the job that is expected from them. Second, they must trust their leader that he ties the outcome to performance. Finally, the followers want satisfaction for the task they have performed. These are three conditions that increases the change of creating highly motivated followers. Of course there are more factors that can motivate them, but these three are essential.
Follower values and trust
“When leaders effectively model their values, identity, emotions and goals to their followers, the potential for authentic followership increases.” (Gardner, 2005). Leaders and followers work better together other when they feel comfortable about each other. Therefore it is important to get to know each other’s values, identity, emotions etc. Ehrhart and Klein (2001) researched the relationship between the follower and the leader to investigate the influence of values and personality on this relationship. They found that followers had different responses to the same leader behaviors and that followers looked for leaders whose values matched their own values. According to this same research, charismatic leaders helped followers to take an active role in decision making and made them feel satisfied with their involvement and accomplishments.
So the most important part of the follower – leader relationship is mutual trust and openness of communication.
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