The other day, I was leafing through a USA Today in an airport when I stumbled upon an interesting article by Del Jones about followership. Not leadership, followership. Followership is a term so unused that my spell check begs me to change it.

While most people may think the term “follower” is derogatory, I would beg to differ. A good follower not only performs their duties as directed, but can be a valuable asset to a leader; the output of any organization is the combined effort of followers.

Followers can help leaders create accountability in their organizations. If leaders make the effort to recognize and foster their followers, the followers will usually go out of their way to make the leader look good.

How does a leader do this? Take time with the followers in the operation. Make sure roles are clearly defined, make sure a process is in place. Most leadership analysis stresses that followers need to be encouraged to feel like team members, not hired help. A team environment where everyone is responsible for the group’s accountability is a good way to motivate progress.

On the other hand, countermanding orders, retreating from programs and failure to implement by leaders has created a weak leadership syndrome well known to followers. They call it “flavor-of-the-month.” Flavor of the month programs are leadership directions that are never fully executed. Generally they are announced with some fanfare. They usually reflect the latest management fad that has been chronicled in a best-seller. Soon everyone is talking about one-minute managers, TQM, moving your cheese, thinking out of your box, and on and on...

What is the point of all this? It is leadership by catchy trend. Flavor of the month. It doesn’t change much and a few months later things are back to the status quo. Spotters quickly notify everyone up and down the line that a new, half-baked program is approaching. An informal, but powerful resistance movement springs up. It is now a contest to see who will win. It’s the countermanding leadership vs. the flavor-of-the-month-club. The flavor club usually wins. It doesn’t work.

At some period of time, every great leader was a great follower. If you want to find out who will make your operation successful in the long run, identify your top followers. Good followers can evolve into good leaders.

Pay close attention to your workers. The ones who ask the most questions are frequently the most dependable, and the ones who don’t follow blindly will have a positive impact on your organization. Spotting these people early will help you hire, retain and produce good workers.

By tending to your strongest followers, you will make an investment in your organization’s future. If you’ve been wondering what your operation will look like in the next ten years, look into the eyes of your followers. They are the ones who are not only keeping the cleaning machine running, but they’re going to be able to figure out how to keep it running as times change.

John Walker is a veteran building service contractor; owner of ManageMen consulting services, Salt Lake City; and founder of Janitor University, a hands-on cleaning management training program.




POSTED ON: 8/1/2005