The next meditation on followership from Ira Chaleff’s “The Courageous Follower” is: If leaders abuse their power, I can help them change their behavior. For courageous followers this is not simply a suggestion, it is a requirement. It is a fundamental failure of followership to allow bad behavior in our leaders to go unchallenged and become manifest in leadership failures that damage our organizations and institutions.
Look, good people can do bad things. But the issue is not how good or bad our leaders are – the issue is their behavior. Whenever the leader’s behavior abuses power, it is our responsibility as followers to challenge that behavior. We don’t do so by waging our fingers and saying “this sucks and so do you.” We care about our leaders, even when they behave badly, and in right relationship with them our responsibility is to help them get back on track and return to behaving in ways that furthers our shared purpose.
This of course requires a fundamental shift in our power paradigm, what we believe about the roles, responsibilities, and privlidges of those that hold titles and positions of authority and those that do not. We have to see ourselves as peers who share with our leaders the responsibility for the success and failure of our organization. As leaders, we WANT followers like this because they make our job much easier. But if we don’t behave ourselves this way as followers, we simply won’t be equipped to appreciate and cultivate this behavior in our own followers.
Please don’t miss the fact that practicing this principle as a follower might be one of the best ways we can guard against abusing power ourselves when we are given the privilege to lead. If we do behave badly as leaders, let’s hope we have at least one courageous, partner follower there beside us to help us get back on track.
Related Posts:
A Culture Of Communication, Not Complaints
What Type Of Followers Do You Have?
Attributions: Explaining Our Own Behavior
You should follow me on twitter here.
Bret, great advice. As followers delay and putt off the confrontation regarding a leader’s behavior, the “wall” between follower and leader communication strengthens. The quicker the follower can address the behavior and provide feedback the easier it will be for the leader and follower to communicate effectively.
If followers become “yes sayers” and the leader becomes accustomed to their behavior, it will be much more difficult for a follower to separate herself/himself and communicate behavioral feedback.
Thanks,
Kevin
[Reply]
So very true, Kevin. We have to confront this stuff early. The longer we wait, the harder it gets and the more excuses we have for not doing it. Thanks! Bret
[Reply]