![]() ![]() ![]() They thought for themselves, sharpened their skills, focused their efforts, put on a fine display of grit and spunk and self-control. But these employees accepted the delegation of authority and went there alone. What was it these singular employees did? Given a goal and parameters, they went where most departments could only have gone under the hands-on guidance of an effective leader. In fact, the department’s capacity to control and direct itself virtually without leadership saved the organization months of turmoil, and as the bank struggled to remain a major player in its region, valuable management time was freed up to put out other fires. The bank’s officers were delighted and frankly amazed that rank-and-file employees could assume so much responsibility so successfully. Time and energies were stretched so thin that one department head decided he had no choice but to delegate the responsibility for reorganization to his staff people, who had recently had training in self-management.ĭespite grave doubts, the department head set them up as a unit without a leader, responsible to one another and to the bank as a whole for writing their own job descriptions, designing a training program, determining criteria for performance evaluations, planning for operational needs, and helping to achieve overall organizational objectives. Its most seasoned managers had to spend most of their time in the field working with corporate customers. In 1987, declining profitability and intensified competition for corporate clients forced a large commercial bank on the east coast to reorganize its operations and cut its work force. Organizations stand or fall partly on the basis of how well their leaders lead, but partly also on the basis of how well their followers follow. Without his armies, after all, Napoleon was just a man with grandiose ambitions. But in searching so zealously for better leaders we tend to lose sight of the people these leaders will lead. So we study great leaders of the past and present and spend vast quantities of time and money looking for leaders to hire and trying to cultivate leadership in the employees we already have. ![]() We are convinced that corporations succeed or fail, compete or crumble, on the basis of how well they are led. ![]() The activation of followership could be a remark of successful leadership. Followers have been the center of organizational focus in modern structure. Figure 1: Robert Kelley's Followership dimensions and styles, adapted from Kellerman (2008)1. This reflects modern culture's emphasis on leadership and its tendency to overlook the less glamorous but vital role of followership. A provocative guide to the vital new organizational style that puts the power back where it. Never has the cult of leadership held such sway in business as it does today -but it's The Followers who really get things done. ![]()
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