Future Leaders Must Learn How to Follow, Before They Learn How to Lead. How to identify Toxic Followers
Dan Rice ???? ????
President/CEO American University Kyiv/ Co-President Thayer Leadership at West Point/Special Advisor to Ukraine Armed Forces Commander In Chief 5/22-3/23. Primary advocate acquired cluster munitions & ATACM for Ukraine.
On Day 1 in the U.S. military, every serviceman or woman starts their formal lifelong learning journey-- learning how to "follow". There is a formal, well-thought out program to teach 'followership' to every new recruit. It seems intuitive: before learning how to lead, every member of an organization needs to learn how to follow and needs to understand the expectations of them as a 'follower'. It is a deliberate component of a leader development sequential process within the military, starting on Day 1 in Basic Training. And yet it is counter-intuitive that most companies do not make a deliberate process to teach "followership". This is how and why the military is later able to 'push down empowerment' to the lowest levels by providing mission, 'commanders' intent', left and right limits, etc so that followers can then lead.
Every corporation has far more new hire employees who are 'followers' than they have leaders, but few have a formal process to instruct the new employees and front line troops on the expectations of their role as a "follower" during their on-boarding. This needs to be a deliberate act to create a leader driven, learning culture with both leaders and followers understanding their roles and responsibilities.
Command Sergeant Major Brian Disque has written an excellent article "Followership: Avoid Being a Toxic Subordinate" in the 'NCO Journal' (Non-Commissioned Officer). Command Sergeant Major is the highest rank of the Non-Commissioned Officers and is the backbone of the Army. By teaching these lessons in the professional magazine of the non-commissioned officer corps, the Army is pushing "followership" out to the front line leaders who motivate, train and inspire the troops. CSM Disque identifies four key actions/behaviors that identify 'toxic followers' and seven ways to become a great follower. How many companies articulate how to identify toxic followers and how to be a great follower? It's worth the read.
In the Army, everyone is both a leader and a follower depending on the situation, as it should be in any corporation. Even the CEO usually reports into a board for most companies. We need to balance training to understand both roles, leader and follower, for every individual.
Consultant
6 年1979, DI Gaskill. “You must learn to be a great follower first, before you can lead! We are here to make you great followers!”
Futurist | Leader | Organizational Scientist
6 年Excellent article, it should be testable at ALL levels of PME.? I propose the following "Leader's Creed" I am a leader. I will provide what my superiors, regulations and orders ask of me given the resources assigned to me, those I can acquire, and my individual abilities. I will communicate clearly in the manner that my leader understands and ideally can translate to his superiors. I will make every effort to anticipate and solve problems before they become my boss' problems. I will bring him only those that require resources controlled beyond my influence and provide a description of at least one possible solution. I will ensure my superiors understand how I am prioritizing and utilizing my resources against known requirements. I will understand my reserves and how quickly I can re-allocate resources against emergent problems. I solve problems.
Chief of Operations Operational Services Branch
6 年This is a great article. There is a time for input and a time to salute smartly and move out. Leadership is full of risk assumption/management and decisions are made when leaders can count on their followers to execute. Toxic followers add an unknown factor to risk assumption that can hamstring even the best operations.