I'm sitting at Uptown Espresso in Seattle catching a breath between meetings and playing catch up on my weekly blog posts. Today I'm going to write on Followership, which is the flipside of Leadership. In the situations when we are not the recognized leader in a situation, how can we contribute to the effectiveness of our teams? Here are five quick tips to consider.
1. Balance out the leader's strengths. If you work for a highly directive leader, one way to balance their strengths would be to ask good questions and strive to create a balance of advocacy and inquiry in the group. Or if your leader is a big picture thinker, you might contribute some of the detail-oriented bits that the team needs, to create a well rounded approach to issues.
2. Observe and learn. Learning from your own mistakes and triumphs is powerful. Learning from the mistakes and triumphs of others can be even better. Rather than sitting and making judgments of the leader, use your follower time to make observations about the whole team. "Whenever Jane says "As you all well know..." she shuts down the conversation" is one example observation. Be a keen observer of human nature - an organizational anthropologist!
3. Boost your Leader Up. Leading teams can be tough, so when you see your leader making a good point or trying to lead a necessary but difficult conversation, offer your support both verbally and with your body language. "As much as I hate to have more meetings, Joe is right. We really do need to figure this thing out. I'll bring coffee." Your validation isn't sucking up to your boss unless it is effusive or inappropriate.
4. Practice your Challenging Skills. Challenging the group might include sentences that start "I'd like us to look at this from another angle..." or "I think there is something we are overlooking...." or even "I'm worried that we're making a mistake." When something is not going right in your eyes, you can still challenge the team as a non-leader, and doing this with style will take some practice.
5. Relax a little. For those of you in leadership roles, it can be draining at times. When you are in situations when you are a regular-ole-participant, kick your feet up a bit (at least mentally) and enjoy a brief respite from the demands of leadership. Strive to be the employee that you would like to have on your team.
I hope you enjoyed these tips. More and more, the concept of leadership is being redefined from a specific "role" to a set of behaviors anyone can and should use. Even when you are part of the pack, you still have a great deal to offer.
Do you have tips to add? Leave a comment!
Enjoyed these tips and for those interested in Followership there is a group on Linkedin - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1932453&mostPopular=&trk=tyah
Posted by: a mcginn | March 22, 2011 at 08:39 AM