In one line: Most of the time everyone is following someone, and doing it well (thinking critically, engaging actively, supporting the leader while telling them the truth) is itself a leadership skill.
Core idea
The leadership literature dwarfs the followership literature, yet leaders and followers succeed or fail together. Good followership is not obedience. Robert Kelley described followers along two dimensions, independent critical thinking and active engagement, which produce recognizable types:
- Exemplary: thinks and engages.
- Alienated: thinks but disengages.
- Conformist: engages but doesn’t think.
- Passive: neither.
- Pragmatist: in the middle.
How it works
Practical rules of good followership, as one Air Force officer distilled them, come down to a handful of themes:
- Loyalty in public, candor in private. Disagree with the boss behind closed doors, then support the decision once it is made. Don’t badmouth the leader to others.
- Bring solutions, not just problems. Take initiative within your lane and show up with a recommendation.
- Tell the truth, especially bad news, and tell it early.
- Do your homework. Arrive prepared, and be ready to carry out what you propose.
- Keep the leader informed, so they are never surprised by something you knew.
- Own your mistakes and fix problems as they arise.
- Give more than the minimum.
In practice
Followership shows up in how you take an assignment, how you report a slipping schedule, and how you behave after losing an argument. Rules that are not followed tend to show their cost quickly: the engineer who quietly disagrees and slow-walks a decision, or who surprises the manager in front of the customer, damages trust across the team. The flip side is that exemplary followers are the people leaders promote, because they are already doing the work of leaders.
Questions to ask yourself
- Which Kelley type would my manager say I am right now?
- When I disagree, do I say so privately and then support, or do I comply and complain?
- What would my boss want to know today that I haven’t told them?
Connections
- Counterpart of: Situational Leadership, where readiness is a follower trait.
- Practiced through: Managing Up and Leading from the Middle.
- Related to: Monkey Management, since good followers carry their own monkeys.
- Capabilities exercised: Trust and Loyalty, Courage, Initiative.
Sources
- Meilinger - The Ten Rules of Good Followership [1]
- Kelley’s followership styles [2]