The link between leadership, management and performance is widely understood and accepted.
The ‘leadership triad’—leadership, management and followership is less discussed but equally important.
For those of us interested in our approach to leadership, the principles of followship, servant leadership and ethical principles are important models to explore.
No-one leads all the time and most of us are in a follower relationship with someone. Even as a entrepreneur, CEO or Board level role, we comply with legislation, follow those who are our system leaders and are influenced by our sustainability and social value role models.
Role modelling behaviours is a powerful tool of communication and influence. Having a robust understanding of our own values, our organisational purpose and our leadership approach is critical to enable followship.
Servant leadership, followship and ethical principles are important dimensions when we are trying to build resilient and fulfilled workforces and organisations. This is particularly true in an uncertain and complex world, where we must embody sustainability to ensure we preserve our resources, social value to ensure that we address disadvantage alongside growth and performance ensuring we all thrive and meet our triple bottom line responsibilities.
I believe in servant leadership and try to serve in my own organisations, creating ethical frameworks and ensuring that I both lead and follow to create opportunities.
Followership is the ability to take direction well (which I can struggle with sometimes!), to get in line behind a mission, to be part of a team and to deliver on what is expected of you. How well the followers follow is probably just as important to ensure success as how well the leaders lead.
Where followership is a failure, not much gets done, we have low morale and we will be with distracted from our goals, There will be lost opportunities and quality and safety consequences.
Good followers have a number of qualities.
- They exercise Judgement where they take direction but have an underlying obligation to follow ethical principles.
- They require Competence to undertake their role to the best of their ability, with motivation and completion of the activities that they commit to.
- They require values of Trust, Honesty and Courage enabling the ability to give constructive feedback, embrace change and support activities.
- They should be Engaged, Independent and Critical thinkers who are supportive and can empathise, negotiate and mediate when differences arise
- They should Value themselves as an asset, looking after their own wellbeing and of those around them recognising strengths and positivity.
Leaders and followers should not in opposition or competition to each other, but co-exist in a productive and harmonious manner.
Good leaders therefore have a number the same qualities.
- They exercise Judgement where they take direction but have an underlying obligation to follow ethical principles.
- They require Competence to undertake their role to the best of their ability, with motivation and completion of the activities that they commit to.
- They require values of Trust, Honesty and Courage enabling the ability to give constructive feedback, embracing change and support activities.
- They should be Engaged, Independent and Critical thinkers who are supportive and can empathise, negotiate and mediate when differences arise
- They should Value themselves as an asset, looking after their own wellbeing and that of those around them recognising strengths and positivity.
Even today the spotlight is on the leader rather than the followers who are largely seen as passive and compliant to the actions and instructions of the leader however this relationship is intricately entwined and must be understood.
Servant leadership further embodies followership.
Robert K. Greenleaf first coined the phrase “servant leadership” in his 1970 essay, “The Servant as a Leader.”
“The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with a natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first, as opposed to wanting power, influence, fame, or wealth.”
― Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
As a servant leader, you’re a “servant first” focusing on the needs of others, especially team members, before you consider your own. You acknowledge other people’s perspectives, give them the support they need to meet their work and personal goals, involve them in decisions where appropriate, and build a sense of community within your team. This leads to higher engagement, more trust, and stronger relationships.
Servant leadership can be considered a mindset rather than a ‘toolkit’ which creates behaviours which are consistent.
- Being authentic to our purpose with self awareness to understand our own emotions, strengths, weaknesses and contributions
- Valuing others and ensuring inclusion by appreciating all perspectives
- Growing our people by understanding their strengths and uniqueness and supporting them to be their best selves
- Providing direction through influence rather than authority gaining consensus, motivation and sharing leadership
- Serving others, with humility to build community and show stewardship taking responsibility for our resources
- Demonstrating insight and patience using intuition alongside conventional wisdom to understand consequences to enable us all to move forward
Greenleaf wanted to promote a counter movement to altruism determined by new styles of businesses and in 2022, the context is unchanged.
The Disadvantages of Servant Leadership
Servant leadership has disadvantages as many leaders or managers are unfamiliar with this philosophy and therefore may not be accepted. They may like direction and prefer a more autocratic culture and as a servant leader, you may find a lack of respect is shown with little confidence in your actions.
Where serving others and co-production form part our daily purpose, decisions take longer and this at times is problematic especially in crisis situations.
It is important to remember that servant leadership is about focusing on other people’s needs. Servant leadership does not mean avoiding unpopular decisions or avoiding giving negative feedback or challenging the status quo.
I believe that many forms of leadership can co-exist and these alter according to circumstance and context. I recognise that I switch between styles but am passionate about ethical principles, values based culture and leadership where we place others at the centre of our decisions.
The five ethical attributes for leadership which I consider important are:
- Justice
- Humility
- Trust
- Respect
- Shared Vision
Collective Power
Through the frameworks of servant leadership, followship and ethical principles, we must recognise the consequence of collective power.
When individuals and their united community create a voice, they will form an important alliance which can deliver a powerful message. This can be adopted by a leader and will help you tackle difficult or intransigent issues.
As a servant leader we can adopt ‘leadership through followership’ involving the collaboration formed by our followers and enable them to take leadership of a situation. We can champion and advocate their voice using our servant leadership model.
This can be particularly powerful as a ‘collective emotion’ can potentially unite and lead to transformation for good and harnessing this can be an asset that no leader alone can mobilise.
