Frankenstein's Model of Leadership

Followership vs. Leadership

In the last year, the term leadership was searched an average of 77x more than followership. This is not surprising, as leadership is the current hotness and also the current metric most utilized to gauge a person's effectiveness. Promotions are not received due to great followership, but rather based on leadership. Opportunities are not given due to followership, but usually because leadership was shown. As a military officer, I am all too familiar with senior leaders being fired for the reason that "confidence was lost in their leadership." Followership is not an oft-mentioned trait for success. What leaders fail to realize, however, is that followership is a metric for one's leadership impact. Look at it this way--Dr. Frankenstein became obsessed with creating life. He worked day and night cobbling together dead flesh in hopes of animating it with the spark of life. When he did, he was so overcome with shame and guilt that he abandoned his creature. This is where the horror comes in. The creature follows him around the globe, seeking his guidance and help and mentorship--asking him to lead. But Dr. Frankenstein denies his leadership and refuses to help, driving the creature to become the titular monster. Leaders create followers and some become monsters.

What's a follower look like?

The study of followership really began with Dr. Robert Kelley, who identified five (5) types of followers.

• Exemplary Followers are highly engaged and utilize a high level of critical thinking--they are your "constructive feedback" people.

• Conformist Followers are highly engaged but with a lower level of critical thinking--these like to say "yes" to the leader or to the organization;

• Passive Followers exhibit a low level of engagement and critical thinking--they are putting in their time;

• Alienated Followers are engaged at a low level but have a high level of critical thinking--they are the "mavericks";

• Pragmatic Followers are middle-of-the-road in both areas--they're just working the system.

Impacting Followership

The truth is, followers are often defined by the level of leadership displayed. Followership is a malleable trait. Imagine this: Exemplary Follower (EF) comes into an organization where the leader desires feedback, practices self-reflection and change, seeks community, and practices leadership which engages the whole person (often referred to as intrusive leadership). EF will thrive in this environment. He is able to confront the boss when necessary, offer sage advice, and play a part in moving the team and the mission forward. However, change the leader type to an "always right, my way or the highway" person, and EF becomes an Alienated Follower (AF). Here, the leader is not requesting actual engagement as a whole person, but rather someone who will always say "Yes" to the leader. Lacking that opportunity to engage, yet unable to turn off that critical thinking, EF burns down and AF arises from the ashes . Left too long, AF will likely become either a passive or pragmatic follower and the leader will become toxic.

Conclusion

Leadership styles are illustrated by the type of followers they create. Life-giving leadership provides the soil that nurtures the highly-engaged and thoughtful follower. Most followers come in pre-packaged, so to speak, as one of Dr. Kelley's five, but the authentic and transformative leader will help them move towards exemplary followership.

Reflection

1. How do you classify your own followership?

2. What kind of follower do you prefer?

3. Was there ever a time when you saw your own type of followership change because of the leader?

4. What kind of followers is your leadership forming?