For the fourth instalment of my mini-series on leadership, we are focusing on followers. You can’t lead unless people are willing to follow. You may think that you are a leader, but if you have no followers then you are only leading yourself. Good leaders are tuned into their followers. They understand what makes their followers tick, what is important to them, what their values and beliefs are. Remember there are four components of a Dynamic Leadership model –
- Context
- Vision
- Followers
- The Leader
By mastering the context and creating their vision the leader can galvanise their followers and maximise their potential. People want to do a good job and to be associated with success. Followers must believe that following is in their best interests at this time. They must understand the rationale for the vision the leader articulates. Last month saw the 80th anniversary of the allied D-Day landings in Normandy during World War II. Every man and woman, at every rank, and there were thousands of them, knew what the objective was, and fully supported the endeavour. People knew the overall goal and knew how their contribution fit into the larger plan. This is one of the reasons why it was successful. Part of the job of the leader is to provide the followers with the facilities, equipment, processes, know-how, and management that their role requires. People will adapt and cope without these for a while, but not over the long-term. Great efforts were made by the allied leaders to make the job of everyone involved in D-Day easier. Specially adapted tanks were developed, including swimming ones. Airborne and glider drops were used to secure key bridges and to protect the flanks of the beaches. Air raids and naval bombardments were used, and layers of deception were woven in to confuse the Nazis. The allies even brought two prefabricated harbours with them across the Channel.
Leadership does include some aspects of management, but to fully understand the difference think about it like this: a manager works on the physical resources of an organisation; whereas a leader works on the social architecture of the organisation, what you might call the spiritual resources. The key aspects of social architecture are –
- Appropriate recognition for effort
- No blame culture
- Flexibility is allowed
- Dissent is encouraged, not suppressed
- Everyone assumes responsibility for the product or service
In a no blame culture people are prepared to take risks. The amount of risk that people can take should reflect their position, and learning needs to happen when things do not work out as planned. This means that people need to be empowered to do their job well. This can seem like a paradox to many people, but the real power of a leader comes from empowering their followers. The leader still retains control over the vision and is the builder of the organisation’s social architecture, but the followers need to know that they are full participants in the realisation of that vision. During World War II Churchill allowed his generals to disagree with him and to tell him hard truths. Much unlike how Hitler operated. His generals were unwilling to disagree with him, because if they did, they were immediately replaced. Churchill did replace generals, but only ones who displayed incompetence, not ones who gave him a contrary view.
A leader working within a dynamic leadership model needs to adopt different leadership styles at different times. Sometimes you need to actively direct people. This may be when they lack experience and motivation. At other times a coaching approach may be most appropriate, to draw out untapped potential. When dealing with skilled, experienced, motivated staff, full delegation would be the best approach. And sometimes people just need a bit of inspiration. As American troops struggled on Omaha beach, high ranking officers, including generals, were landed to direct the assault and to rally the troops. Colonel George Taylor, risked death walking along the beach urging soldiers to continue the fight. He is famous for saying, “Only two kinds of people are going to be on this beach, the dead and those who are going to die. Now get moving!”
“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.” Ralph Nader
