Do you Follow?

If you’re looking to develop your leadership skills there is an entire industry out there to help you. Within education there are conferences, books and NPQs all set to help you cement your identity as a leader within school.

What we talk about less in this space is how we see ourselves (if we do at all) as followers.

I think there’s merit in asking where power truly lies in organisations, and for my personal area of interest, in schools. Even more so, I think we’d benefit if we embrace our role as followers and think more carefully about how well we enact this role for the benefit of our pupils and the school as a whole. This is more important now than it was 20 years ago due to the rise of Multi-Academy Trusts. Whereas in the past the head was queen of her castle, now she too is a follower. As we create more layers of leadership, we are ultimately creating more layers of people and more ranks of followers.

Followership is sometimes addressed in the more palatable language of ‘teamwork’, but in most instances this is still written from the perspective of those leading teams. Additionally, there is the potential here that we are ignoring the nuances of the hierarchies that undeniably exist in schools. I’ve read extensively about leadership from an academic perspective, but additionally, I am interested in the wider literature surrounding organisational structure, so have read a fair few of the genre that explores leadership, personal and organisational development.

Who leads? Who follows?

There is an issue though, as the thing I can’t get out of my head when I’m reading these types of books is the absence of both the qualities of followership in the messages that the authors share, but also within the leader-centred narratives that are shared.

In the worst examples, team members are akin to props within a leader’s action plan or even the obstacle that the leader needs to overcome (Uhl-Bien et al., 2014). This view is limiting and not a little insulting! Indeed, this links to something far more sinister as this narrative links to the idea of leadership and total power, in some way being ‘special’ something that scholars of organisation structures argue has led to a focus on the role of followers and followership in light of the #MeToo movement (Finlayson, 2021).

There are societal factors at play here too. In the midst of neo-liberalism, it makes total sense that as a reader we are drawn to texts that centre around our power within a wider group over which we have relatively little influence. That feeling of control over a situation is comforting and we like to hear stories about how a hero overcomes obstacles to reach a happy ending (Campbell, 1949). A large proportion of the wider literature out there comes from the US which has the cultural implications of individualism and also the distrust of group control or mentality due to the historical suspicion of socialism. I think this can lead us to a misconception surrounding the power of a group in both ability to influence and ability to do good. 

Social identity theory is the idea that leaders lead by consensus of the group (Uhl-Bien et al., 2014). Essentially that leaders are accepted within an organisation by the extent to which they espouse the values that organisation embodies. This has ethical implications due to the undertone societal discrimination that can come with this (someone much funnier and informed than me asked me to consider the extent to which someone was charismatic/knowledgeable or just tall and male!). In my head, this seems to make sense as the approaches we currently value are moving away from dogmatic, authoritarian leadership to more democratic or distributed models.

But what does this mean for us at individual level? You’ve probably either considered or been asked to consider your approach to leadership, but how often have you thought about your ability to follow? I remember a while back I was frustrated at something I was being asked to do by a superior. I mentioned it to my colleague and he simply shrugged and said “give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s”. I wasn’t thinking about my role as follower. Someone above me in an organisation had asked me to generate data in a certain way to support their work (probably at the instruction of their own line manager) and my role was simply to supply the information. It’s great to think and to challenge when necessary, I wouldn’t argue otherwise, but we also need to think about which battles are worth fighting.

For example, in the book I’m reading at the moment (which has its good bits, but hasn’t won me over) Lead Yourself First the authors use an example from the army officer who changed tactics for a mission at the last minute. Knowing he would be fragged (the killing of a superior officer at night in this example by throwing a grenade into tents whilst the inhabitants are sleeping) if he did not explain himself fully, he spoke to his men as much detail as possible as to why the change had to take place. My understanding of the message behind this story was that this individual was a strong leader because he knew just when to be open and transparent with the group. The mission was a success, and he is now being mentioned in a book about effective leadership. Job well done. Another take on this, however, is that this story really demonstrates the power of the group.

So, what makes a good follower?

Ultimately, many of the qualities we see in good leaders can also be see in good followers (Tanoff & Barlow, 2002). Critical thinking and independent work support dynamic followership (Ribbat et al., 2023). Sociability and ability to be organised are important qualities for followers. There is a positive correlation between and an individual’s sociability and organisational skills and being a good follower. The better they are at these things, the more likely people are to enact both active engagement and independent thinking (Tanoff & Barlow, 2002). Kelley’s (1992) model is used widely as his is the first example of a clear model that explores characteristics of followership. Kelley categorises what happens when followers are not fully optimised. The quality of followership within an organisation is based upon the extent to which individuals think critically and actively participate.  

Depending on the levels of participation and critical thinking present in a person’s experience, Kelley tells us that followers can fall into one of the following groups:

Adapted from Robert E. Kelley (1996) “In Praise of Followers” in Military Leadership: In Pursuit of Excellence, 3^rd Edition ed. R. L. Taylor and W. E. Rosenbach pp.137

Linking this back to schools…

What does this look like for those of us working together to support pupils? Whilst schools have traditional hierarchical structures that we see in the world of business (where these studies originate), my EdD research is leading me to believe that we are much flatter structurally than other workplaces. Teachers are leaders in their classrooms and many of us have some form of leadership responsibilities on top of this. We are all leaders and followers respectively. The most obvious example of this is deputy headship as this person must both follow their headteacher, but simultaneously lead large areas of school life such as quality of education:

‘In this relationship, the principal is the master-leader and often, a new first-time vice-principal is the follower or apprentice. It seems fair to say that the role of vice-principal is learning how to be a strong leader by following the formal leader’s (principal) example’ (Crippen, 2012, p. 193).

Vice principals and similarly seconds in department need to back their leader completely, whilst being honest with them if the feel they’re making mistakes. Following also seems linked to learning: schools have a responsibility to development all team members. ‘If a school is truly developing and growing and learning and is collaborative, then each person is leader and follower at various times’ (Crippen, 2012, p. 194). Informally, I have heard leaders explain that it’s important to pick your battles. If we fight every decision a leader is making, the school won’t operate effectively, whereas if we go along with everything, things will go wrong, and we will all pretend it hasn’t (see the ‘yes person’ second of the above graph). Whilst seemingly nice on the surface, a team that does not ever disagree openly is the most toxic to work in.

I think the key is to know when you need to step into which role. In the best examples, there are clear means of participation to accompany this set out by the headteacher (Gilkey, 2024). Being brave enough to ask about ways of working when moving to a new role or school can be a great way to set the tone right here. Whilst potentially awkward ‘how do I disagree with you?’ is a powerful question to ask your colleagues and line manager.

As I go back to work in October at the end of my maternity leave, I’m heading back into an organisation after nearly a year of being in my parenthood bubble. I’ve been thinking about how motherhood and my experiences so far have shaped me as both leader and follower. I want to go back to work with a sense of belonging and energy so I’ve put together these questions as part of my general reflection as I do this and you might find them interesting too.

Reflective Questions

1. In your current role, how do you contribute to the success of those leading you and how do you do this?

2. How do you respond to instructions or when key decisions have been made (particularly those you don’t totally like)?

3. How effectively do you communicate upwards?

4. How are you using your strengths to further the aims of your school?

5. Which of Kelley’s followers do you think you are? What is in your power to change about this if you don’t feel you are an ‘effective’ follower?

 

References

Campbell, J. (1949). The Hero with a Thousand Faces. New World Library.

Crippen, C. (2012). Enhancing authentic leadership−followership: Strengthening school relationships. Management in Education, 26(4), 192-198. https://doi.org/10.1177/0892020612439084

Finlayson, D. L. (2021). A case for increasing exemplary followership in organizations. Industrial and Commercial Training, 53(2), 175-188. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-02-2020-0022

Gilkey, C. (2024). Team Habits. Profile Books.

Kelley, R. (1992). The power of followership : how to create leaders people want to follow, and followers who lead themselves. Doubleday.

Ribbat, M., Nohe, C., & Hüffmeier, J. (2023). Followership styles scrutinized: temporal consistency and relationships with job attitudes and self-efficacy. PeerJ, 11. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.16135

Tanoff, G., & Barlow, C. (2002). Leadership and Followership: Same Animal, Different Spots? Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research, 53, 157-165.