The Hindu Business Line : Real power is with the followers

“To fixate on leadership at the expense of followership is to whistle against the wind,” writes Barbara Kellerman in Followership ( www.tatamcgrawhill.com). Subordinates with less power, authorit y, and influence than their superiors are coming into their own, more consistently and insistently than ever before, and the evidence is everywhere around us, she observes.

By ‘followership’ the author implies ‘a relationship (rank) between subordinates and superiors, and a response (behaviour) of the former to the latter.’ She bemoans the fact that corporates are generally loath to admit the obvious: those high on the organisational ladder generally dominate those lower down.

To obscure the unpleasant truth that power relationships persist, we use words like ‘empowerment, participation, teams, and distributed leadership’ that lull us into thinking things are different from what they really are, and suggest rather a level-playing field, which by and large is false, asserts Kellerman.

She looks at things from the bottom up, rather than from the top down, and identifies four types of followers, viz. bystanders, participants, activists, and diehards. “Bystanders observe but do not participate. They make a deliberate decision to stand aside, to disengage from their leaders and from whatever is the group dynamic,” the book explains. This withdrawal is a declaration of neutrality, decodes Kellerman; a tacit support for whoever and whatever constitutes the status quo.

The second type, the ‘participants,’ comprises those who are in some way engaged. “They clearly favour their leaders and the groups and organisations of which they are members – or they are clearly opposed.”

The activists, the third category, are the eager, energetic, and engaged followers who feel strongly about their leaders. “Because they are heavily invested in people and process, they work hard either on behalf of their leaders or to undermine and even unseat them.”

More powerful than activists are the diehards; they are willing ‘to risk life and limb’ for or against the leader. Of all the different types of followers, the most likely to become leaders are diehards, finds Kellerman. “Diehards are, after all, driven to create change – they are consumed by their commitment. No wonder that some who succeed become legends in their own time.”

The final chapter makes ‘six all-important assumptions’, which include employee-friendly thoughts, as follows:

While followers by definition lack authority, at least in relation to their superiors, they do not by definition lack power and influence.

Followers can be agents of change.

Followers ought to support good leadership and thwart bad leadership.

Followers can create change by circumventing their leaders and joining with other followers instead.

And to those followers who are taking on bad leaders, the author suggests ‘collective action’ because it is safer and also more likely to be effective than working as a lone ranger. For, “the single strongest weapon of the powerless against the powerful is the power of numbers,” she reasons.

Disruptive read for leaders.

D. Murali

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

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