Is there a A Leader and A Follower Mindset?

Leadership skills, traits and behaviour are topics of many books. We submerge ourselves in a sea of books and articles about leadership. Many sayings exist to describe leadership. “Always lead, never follow. It’s easy to follow, but great people don’t follow, they lead. Become the leader others will follow….”

Leaders can embrace an autocratic, democratic, coaching, or even servant-oriented approach. There is abundant speculation about the various approaches to leadership, including their qualities , abilities, and styles. This narrative encourages us to take charge, take on our own responsibilities, and make a remarkable impact in the world. But this overwhelming belief that success comes from being the leader is setting us up for disappointment.. Most of us will never run countries, organisations or other bodies. Leadership in this context is for the few.

Some of us may feel an internal drive to become a leader, while others may recoil at the thought of it, not wanting the added pressure. A true leader can only exist when there are people willing to follow. The followers are often overlooked. But in life, we can be both the leader and the follower. In our personal life, we could be the one leading the way, say as head of the family or coaching a local football team. But at work, we could be content to follow the lead of someone else. Depending on the situation, we may have roles of leading and following in both our work-life and our personal-life. We all possess a combination of leading and following characteristics, making us all unique. Let’s consider how we can be leaders and followers.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS?

A leader is someone who can make their followers believe in their vision and act upon it. An outstanding leader exudes ethicality, charisma, and inspires others with their personable nature. They motivate their followers, using words of encouragement and a drive that resonates with potential followers to reach their goals. With a powerful presence, they command attention, offering a sense of freedom to take risks and instigate creativity to find the best ways to complete a task. The follower has less responsibility, takes orders, and looks up to the leader, and they understand the limitations of their position. They take pleasure in seeing the details come together, following directions to make the delivery of goals a reality.

This stark separation can make us think we can only be one or the other. Surely many of the qualities can be found in followers and leaders alike? And isn’t everyone a follower to someone? We can choose only to be a follower or we can choose to be both switching on a case by case basis.

HOW DID LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERS COME ABOUT?

Humans exist in groups. We are social creatures, gathering together in large groups for safety and companionship. Leaders and followers emerge to give societal structure and help us flourish and develop this structure. One person can be the catalyst to point the way forward to encourage others to work together to keep society functioning.

But successful leadership is based on the relationship between leaders and followers. Leaders and followers need to work together to bring about change and deliver against the said goal. (1). Cooperation and competition underlie the relationships between groups in societies. We can manage it through social specialisation and interdependence, but sometimes it can become hostile and even extreme. This depends on the situation and feelings regarding another group.

Social Identity Theory (2) is a person’s notion of themselves stemming from group affiliations. It proposed that groups, e.g. social class, family, football team, nationality, we belong to, are a source of our pride and self-worth. Groups provide us with a feeling of being part of the social world. The central premise is that members of an in-group will look for negative qualities of an out-group, thus improving their self-esteem.

Leaders and followers in any society attach their social identity and self image to the group. Both have invested their sense of self in what it means to be a member. Belonging to this in-group may cause beneficial outcomes however, it may also generate biased opinions between groups.

Unity of the group is paramount and its strength is via cooperation between the leader and followers.A nuanced perspective supports this as it looked at leadership as a medium for social identity-where leaders and followers are collaborators. The two sides of this partnership, a shared sense of identity. This causes leaders to make particular forms of identity and their own leadership workable. (3)

WHAT MOTIVES LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS?

Motivation process is something that stimulates us to keep doing the task we have already started. The hierarchy of needs model (4) is based on human needs and fulfilment. The urge to satisfy needs is the most important factor in motivation. Most of us have come across this model and it starts with physiological needs moving to safety and security, then social needs, and finally self-actualisation needs. From a work perspective, this can mean:

*Enough salary to pay the bills * Enjoy job security *Work colleagues support in the workplace *Receive recognition for job well done *Get promoted with more responsibilities

It implies that the more advanced needs cannot emerge until we fulfil the simpler ones. We are driven by unsatisfied needs to move forward. This model was further categorised into ERG theory (Existence, Relatedness and Growth).

Existence – ensuring humans have their basic material needs met.
Relatedness – sustaining significant interpersonal bonds.
Growth – desire for personal development.(5)

Although there can be different expectations and aspirations, both leaders and followers go through the same motivational process. If we interchange between leader and follower in different situations we can adapt our needs.

Alongside this, we are driven by intrinsic motivation and/or extrinsic motivation. Internal motivation involves undertaking a task for its own pleasure rather than for any obvious external reward. Whereas extrinsic motivation describes our behaviour as being driven by external incentives or consequences, e.g., monetary loss, demotion, social respect, shame. Intrinsic motivation comes from within us and extrinsic motivation is external. (6)

Mixing extrinsic motivation with intrinsic motivation happens frequently. Such as when working on a project, we push to reach our deadline while enjoying the work and learning something new. Or we may work hard out of fear of failure even if we are enjoying the subject while studying for an exam.

Naturally, leaders have the power to act on the best ways to trigger internal and external motivation to get the best from their followers. But the motivational process is the same for both. A leader, say a CEO, can be motivated by their leader (and becomes a follower) eg board of directors, chair, investors, stakeholders, through incentives, praise, reputation and rewards.

Sometimes, followers look at how they can understand the motivation of their leader to try to get that leader to act in a particular way. So we shouldn’t relegate followers to the role of passive recipients. This is further emphasised by research suggesting – within a leader-follower relationship, “followership escapes the box of simple subordination and obedience of organisational tasks and opens up opportunities for innovative followership that generate and enhance growth within their leader.” (7)

The various leaders and followers roles can have interdependent relationships that are intertwined by circumstance. Where we are leaders and followers depends on whether we look up or down, left or right inside or outside our organisation or in our personal life.

WHAT DOES FOOTBALL TELL US?

The biggest sport in the world, we globally adore football, with its cheers and chants echoing from every continent. Many football clubs are recognisable on a global scale and set up like other business entities.

Despite their C suite executives, it is the Football manager/coach and the players we focus on. Rarely does an organisation have any employee lower than the CEO having such an influence over the running of it. Even during transfer periods we watch the actions of say Director of Football and the Head Scout to understand if the football manager is getting what is needed for a strong squad.

The fans’ investment is their support and money. While their return comes as the emotional gratification of some level of success for their club. Sometimes fans have ownership or part ownership in a club too. Fans can belong to supporter associations including football ultras. And many players become role models impacting aspects of society well beyond football.

Football is a great example of the layering of leaders and followers and where you can have single or hybrid roles depending on which direction you look. We should recognise that we can be hybrids of leaders and followers or instead a follower only and this is okay. Remembering that we are always a follower to someone even if a leader. Let’s be more like football!

References:

1. Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2009). Leadership: A communication perspective (5th ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.

2. Tajfel, H.; Turner, J. C. (1979). “An integrative theory of intergroup conflict”. In W. G. Austin; S. Worchel (eds.). The social psychology of intergroup relations. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole. pp. 33–47.

Tajfel, H.; Turner, J. C. (1986). “The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour”. In S. Worchel; W. G. Austin (eds.). Psychology of Intergroup Relations. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall. pp. 7–24.

3. Reicher, Stephen S. Haslam, Alexander and Hopkins, Nick (2005) Social identity and the dynamics of leadership: Leaders and followers as collaborative agents in the transformation of social reality, The Leadership Quarterly,Volume 16, Issue 4,Pages 547-568.

4. Maslow, Abraham H. (1943). “A theory of human motivation”. Psychological Review. 50 (4): 370–396.

5. Alderfer, Clayton P. (1969). “An empirical test of a new theory of human needs”. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance. 4 (2): 142–75

6. Deci, Edward, L. & Ryan, Richard, M. (1985).Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press.

Deci, Edward, L. & Ryan, Richard, M. (2000). The ‘what’ and ‘why’ of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior.Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227-268

Deci, Edward, L. & Ryan, Richard, M. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68-78.

7. Gilbert & Matviuk. (December 01, 2008). The symbiotic nature of the leader-follower relationship and its impact on organizational effectiveness. Academic Leadership, 6, 4.)