Although there is a great deal of leadership about the concepts of leadership, there isn\u2019t as much about people who follow those leaders.\u00a0Followership\u00a0is \u201cthe act or condition under which an individual helps or supports a leader in the accomplishment of organizational goals\u201d (Wrench et al., 2015, p. 209).<\/p>\n
Ira Chaleff<\/span><\/a> was one of the first researchers to examine the nature of followership in his book,\u00a0The Courageous Follower<\/em> (Courageous Followership, 2022). Chaleff (2003) believes that followership is not something that happens naturally for a lot of people, so it is something in which people must be willing to engage. From this perspective, followership is not a passive behavior. Ultimately, followership can be broken down into two primary factors: the courage to support the leader and the courage to challenge the leader\u2019s behavior and policies. The two primary factors lead to four followership styles: resource, individualist, implementer, and partner. Before proceeding to followership styles, you may want to watch the video Chaleff produced that uses tango to illustrate his basic ideas of followership below:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Cswrnc1dggg[\/embed]\n The first follower style discussed by Chaleff is the\u00a0resource. Resources will not challenge or support their leader. Chaleff argues that resources generally lack the intellect, imagination, and courage to do more than what is asked of them. When it comes to resources, they usually do what is requested of them, but nothing that goes beyond that.<\/p>\n\n The second followership style is the\u00a0individualist.\u00a0Individualists tend to do what they think is best in the organization, not necessarily what they\u2019ve been asked to do. It\u2019s not that individualists are inherently bad followers; they have their perspectives on how things should get accomplished and are more likely to follow their perspectives than those of their leaders. Individualists provide little support for their leaders, and they are the first to speak out with new ideas that contradict their leader\u2019s ideas.<\/p>\n\n The third followership style is the\u00a0implementer.<\/span>\u00a0Implementers are very important for organizations because they tend to do the bulk of the day-to-day work that needs to be accomplished. Implementers busy themselves performing tasks and getting things done, but they do not question or challenge their leaders.<\/p>\n\n The final type of followership is the\u00a0partner.\u00a0<\/span>Partners have an inherent need to be seen as equal to their leaders regarding both intellect and skill levels. Partners take responsibility for their own and their leader\u2019s ideas and behaviors. Partners do support their leaders but have no problem challenging their leaders. When they do disagree with their leaders, partners point out specific concerns with their leader\u2019s ideas and behaviors.<\/p>\n Figure 2.1 Hersey and Blanchard\u2019s Situational-Leadership Theory is derived from Interpersonal Relationships at Work<\/span><\/a> in Interpersonal Communication \u2013 Simple Book Publishing<\/span><\/a> Copyright \u00a9 by Jason S. Wrench; Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter; and Katherine S. Thweatt licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License<\/span><\/a>, except where otherwise noted.<\/p>\n This section is derived from Interpersonal Relationships at Work<\/span><\/a> in Interpersonal Communication \u2013 Simple Book Publishing<\/span><\/a> Copyright \u00a9 by Jason S. Wrench; Narissra M. Punyanunt-Carter; and Katherine S. Thweatt licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License<\/span><\/a>, except where otherwise noted.<\/p>","rendered":" Although there is a great deal of leadership about the concepts of leadership, there isn\u2019t as much about people who follow those leaders.\u00a0Followership\u00a0is \u201cthe act or condition under which an individual helps or supports a leader in the accomplishment of organizational goals\u201d (Wrench et al., 2015, p. 209).<\/p>\nResource<\/h3>\n
Individualist<\/h3>\n
Implementer<\/h3>\n
Partner<\/h3>\n
Followership Styles<\/h2>\n