"Followship" leadership

I had a brief 30 or so minute chat with Marcus Buckingham a couple of years ago at the World Business Forum in Sydney. I was, and still am to some degree a leadership devotee - an unashamed fan of strengths-based leadership, Tom Rath's "StrengthFinder 2.0" as well as John Maxwell's, "21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership". I love leadership!

So, there I was in front of Marcus trying desperately trying to show him that as an aspiring protege I knew something about leadership, when I made somewhat of a faux pas. I asked Marcus the worst rookie-kind of question, "What do you think the top 5 traits of a leader should be?" He looked at me said, "We have made leadership unrealistic, and may set people up to fail." I was shocked! Marcus went on to share that we take the best traits and characteristics of well-known, successful and experienced leaders, and raise the expectation that the very best leaders have ALL of the leadership qualities. Even if there were only 5 leadership traits, then it would be an exceptional individual leader that may have one, maybe two natural giftings. A third may possibly be developed."

I have to say, it was a "Eureka!" moment for me. The 5-Star-Superhero-Leader-Who-Is-Fantastic-At-Everything-They-Do is a myth! Well, that let me off the hook and dare I say the folks I have mentored and coached over the years too (sorry)! We spent the last few minutes of our discussion focussed on the new form of leadership: "Followship".

Obviously, to be a leader means that there have to be followers, otherwise according to John Maxwell, "we are just taking a walk". We have spent millions and millions of dollars on trying to encourage, develop, mould and dare I say cajole, squash and naively force people who aren't leaders, into leadership positions and give ourselves a pat on the back for being a: Leader That Develops Leaders. It's all about being the leader, developing ourselves as better leaders, developing leaders, and leading others to develop leaders who develop leaders...whew! With all our focus on leadership, we have forgotten about the followers.

REMEMBER THIS: We should be teaching ourselves to be better leaders of followers, rather than striving to become a better leader of leaders. We must help and develop followers to be the best followers they can be - to be exceptional and fulfilled followers, rather than ignorantly and irresponsibly setting folks up to be a mediocre disengaged and disillusioned leaders. The best coach of a football team may not have been the most valuable player, and the significant CEO of an automotive multinational may not be an excellent mechanic. The converse is also true.

Followship is the new leadership. It has its heart in the concept of "one-anothering" and true servant-leadership. If leadership is not about fellowship, then perhaps it has become a self-centered and ego-driven approach to personal and professional development.

#followship #leadership #followshipisthenewleadership #marcusbuckingham #johnmaxwell