Leaders:

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Southern Polytechnic State University
Leaders Creating an Environment for
Exceptional Followers Dr. Robert A.
Sevier Senior Vice President Stamats, Inc. Cedar
Rapids, IA 52406 [phone] bob.sevier_at_stamat
s.com
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About Stamats

• We are an award-winning, nationally-recognized
  higher education research, planning, and
  marketing communications company. Our mission is
  to help college and university leaders achieve
  their most important marketing, recruiting, and
  fundraising goals through the creation of
  customized integrated marketing solutions.

• Research, Planning, and Consulting Services
• Image and competitive positioning studies
• Tuition price elasticity studies
• Alumni and donor studies
• Marketing communication audits
• Recruiting audits
• Campus visit audits
• Integrated marketing plans
• Brand clarification and communication plans
• Recruiting plans
• Strategy development and strategic plans
• Board presentations
• Project-specific consulting

• Creative Services
• Recruiting and fundraising publications
• Web site development
• Virtual tours
• Direct marketing strategies (search, annual fund)
• Targeted e-mail marketing systems
• Advertising
• Creative concepting
• Content management systems
• Dynamic news and events calendars
• Message boards/chats

Offices Cambridge, Richmond, Portland (OR),
San Francisco, and Cedar Rapids
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Goals of this Presentation

• Examine the relationship between leaders and
  followers
• Help all of us to be better followers and
  leaders
• Improve organizational performance and individual
  satisfaction

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If you want one year of prosperity, grow
grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow
trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow
people. Chinese proverb
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• It is hard to imagine how a college or university
  can thrive in todays competitive and changing
  environment without the shared enthusiasm,
  energy, and passions of both leaders and their
  followers. Inspired people working together will
  be the architects of the great universities of
  the 21st century.
• Michael Ferrari, Former President
• Texas Christian University

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Some Astonishing Observations

• On average, leaders contribute no more than 20
  percent to the success of most organizations
• Followers are critical to the remaining 80
  percent
• The only time followers follow the leader is when
  the leaders orbit and the followers orbit are
  in synch
• Most people, whatever their title, spend more
  time working as followers than as leaders (more
  time reporting to people than having people
  report to us)

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Some Key Questions

• What is a leader?
• How do leaders differ from managers?
• What is a follower?
• Can we have a meaningful discussion of
  followership without a discussion of leadership?
• Why is leadership so important in higher
  education?
• What about followership?
• Why do you think the idea, and ideal, of
  followership is so difficult for us to deal with?

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Where This All Began

• A school in Washington State
• And another in Michigan
• Research study of 200 leaders (presidents) and
  followers (VPs)

Without followers, leaders arent
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What are you doing? Im writing an article on
followership. What? Run that by me
again. Followershipthe flip side of
leadership. Oh, you mean the people who need
to be told what to do? The sheep? No, I mean
people who know what to do without being toldthe
people who act with intelligence, independence,
courage, and a strong sense of ethics. Im
interested in what separates exceptional
followers from those who perpetuate the negative
stereotypes. I believe the value of followers to
any organization is enormous. Without his
armies, after all, Napoleon was just a little man
with grandiose ambitions.
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A Key Understanding

• It is the job of the leader to grow the followers
• It is the job of the followers to grow the
  organization

The mark of a great leader is the development and
growth of followers.One mark of a great
follower is the growth of leaders.
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Leadership
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Followers and leaders both orbit around the
organizations purpose followers do not orbit
around the leader!
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Is your organizations purpose sufficiently
valuable to attract both great leaders and
exceptional followers?

• Mission
• Vision
• Strategic plan

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Warren Bennis What Is a Leader?

• The manager administers the leader innovates
• The manager is a copy the leader is the original
• The manger focuses on systems and structure the
  leader focuses on people
• The manager relies on control the leader
  inspires trust
• The manager has a short-range view the leader
  has a long-range view
• The manager asks how and when the leader asks
  what and why
• The manager has his eye always on the bottom
  line the leader has his eye on the horizon
• The manager imitates the leader originates
• The manager accepts the status quo the leader
  challenges it
• The manager is the classic good soldier the
  leader is his own person
• The manager does things right the leader does
  the right things

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Becoming a manager has much to do with learning
the metaphors becoming a good manager has much
to do with using the metaphors and becoming a
leader has much to do with changing the metaphors.
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Qualities Leaders Expect from Followers

• Intelligence
• Enthusiasm
• Strong communication skills
• Initiative
• Energy
• Political astuteness
• And the two qualities listed most often by
  leaders
• Cooperation
• Loyalty
• Question What qualities are missing?

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Leadership from the Eye of the Follower

• Two out of five bosses have questionable
  abilities to lead
• One in seven leaders is someone that followers
  see as a potential role model to emulate
• Less than half of the leaders are able to instill
  trust in subordinates
• Nearly 40 percent of leaders
• Have ego problems
• Are threatened by talented subordinates
• Have a need to act superior
• Do not share the limelight

Source Bennis, Buckingham
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A leader must remember that he is on stage every
day. His people are watching him. Everything he
says, and the way he says it, sends off clues to
his employees. These clues affect performance.
The leader is always on stage. Marcus
Buckingham First, Break All the Rules
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Qualities Followers Expect from Leaders

• Honesty
• Forward-looking
• Inspiring
• Competent
• Fair-minded

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Exemplary Followers Expect Their Leaders to...

• Embrace exceptional followers as partners and
  co-creators
• Partnership means sharing information
• Partners co-create the vision and mission
• Partners share the risks and the rewards
• Create environments where exceptional followers
  flourish
• Be less a hero and more a hero maker

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How Leaders Undermine Followers

• Have no sense of vision
• She constantly changes her mind about important
  issues. There is no consistent vision. Everyone
  is going in circles and nothing important ever
  gets accomplished.
• Refuse to listen
• My president believes that he is always right.
  He simply will not listen. His body language,
  demeanor, and how he speaks to his staff
  constantly reinforce the impression that he knows
  more than anyone. After a while we just give up
  trying to contribute.

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Undermine continued

• Cannot make a decision
• We have three strong vice presidents who often
  have different approaches to solving a problem,
  and the senior VP refuses to take charge and make
  a decision. As a result, we spend all of our time
  rehashing the same things. He calls it consensus
  management. We call it a waste of time.
• Betrayed a trust or were dishonest
• I listened to the president tell a parent
  something that we both knew wasnt true. This put
  me in an impossible position because I knew I
  would have to deal with that parent later.

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! Contrasts
IS People are everything People power is a
strategy HR pros as rock stars Hire to position a
company for greatness Excellent pay benefits
package Talent claims its prize Training is an
obsession Feeling the diversity imperative Women
lead A Great place to Work Talent Talent Talent Ta
lent Talent
WAS People are important People power is a
slogan HR pros as paper shufflers Hire to fill a
position Competitive pay benefits package
Talent pays its dues Training is a
department Filling diversity slots Women
lag Secure job with potential for
advancement Human resources Staff Employees Assoc
iates Personnel
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The 12 Questions Your Staff Must Answer Yes

• Do I know what is expected from me at work?
• Do I have the materials and equipment I need to
  do my work right?
• At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I
  do best every day?
• In the last seven days, have I received
  recognition for doing good work?
• Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to
  care about me as a person?
• Is there someone at work who encourages my
  development?
• At work, do my opinions seem to count?
• Does the purpose of my organization make me feel
  my job is important?
• Are my co-workers committed to doing quality
  work?
• Do I have a best friend at work?
• In the last six months, has someone at work
  talked to me about my progress?
• This last year, have I had opportunities at work
  to learn and grow?

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Followers
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You cannot discuss leaders without discussing
followers
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Ira Chaleff, in The Courageous Follower, notes
that the term follower conjures up images of
docility, conformity, weakness, and failure to
excel. Often, none of this is the least bit true.
The sooner we move beyond these images and get
comfortable with the idea of powerful followers
supporting powerful leaders, the sooner we can
fully develop and test models for dynamic,
self-responsible, synergistic relationships in
our organizations.
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Types of Followers

• Pragmatic followers
• Alienated followers
• Comformist
• Passive followers
• Exceptional followers
• See quiz at end of presentation

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The Pragmatic Follower

• Positive
• Keeps things in perspective
• Plays by the rules and regulations
• Negative
• Plays political games
• Risk averse and prone to cover their tracks
• Carries out assignments with middling enthusiasm
• Believes that
• Staying within the rules is important
• Should try to avoid uncertainty and instability

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The Alienated Follower

• Positive
• Mavericks who think for themselves
• Plays the devils advocate
• Negative
• Troublesome, cynical
• Not a team player
• Believes that
• Their leader does not fully recognize or utilize
  their talents
• Extreme cases Saboteur

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The Conformist

• Positive
• Accepts assignments easily
• Trusts and commits to the team and the leader
• Seeks to minimize conflict
• Negative
• Lacks own ideas
• Unwilling to make unpopular decisions
• Averse to conflict
• Believes that
• Following the established order is more important
  than outcomes

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The Passive Follower

• Positive
• Relies on the leaders judgment and thinking
• Seldom resists
• Negative
• Just putting in their time, little else
• Requires an inordinate amount of supervision
• Believes that
• The organization doesnt want their ideas
• The leader is going to do what he/she wants anyway

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The Exceptional Follower

• Positive
• Contributes above and beyond
• Seeks to add value and assist others
• Negative
• Highly idealistic can suffer disillusionment
• Burnout
• Believes that
• Their contribution is important even essential

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Characteristics of the Exceptional Follower

• Job skills How exceptional followers add value
• Focus and commitment
• Competence in critical-path activities
• Initiative in increasing their value to the
  organization
• Organizational skills How exceptional followers
  nurture and leverage a web of organizational
  relationships with
• Team members
• Organizational networks
• Leaders
• Values How exceptional followers exercise a
  courageous conscience which guides their job
  activities and organizational relationships

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How Exceptional Followers Add Value

• Focus on the goal, not the job
• Do a great job on critical-path activities
  related to the goal
• Contribute to the growth of other team members
• Help keep the team, and the leaders, on track
• Take the initiative to increase their value to
  the organization
• Realize they add value not just by going above
  and beyond their work, but in being who they
  aretheir experiences, ideals, and dreams

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Key Responsibilities of Exemplary Followers

• Support the leaders decisions
• Challenge the leader
• Encourage the leader
• Defend the leader

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Support the Leaders Decision

• Stress the need for dialogue before important
  decisions are made
• Refuse to engage in criticism of the leader with
  subordinates
• Keep communication channels to the leader open
• Remind the leader to spend time among
  subordinates
• Keep in mind that how a decision is communicated
  is often as important as the decision itself

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Challenge the Leader

• Must talk to the leader privately rather than
  unloading on him or her in a public forum
• Must pay attention to timing and try not to
  approach the leader when he or she is dealing
  with a crisis or a deadline
• When they sit down with the leader, they must try
  to present the issue as a joint problem that
  needs to be discussed, rather than the leaders
  stupid decision
• They state the issue clearly and succinctly from
  their viewpoint and have the facts straight and
  at hand

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What are some effective strategies for giving
the leader feedback?
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Encourage the Leader

• Average presidency now runs about four years
• One-third of all presidential searches are
  reopened
• Every time someone calls I start a mental
  clock ticking to measure how much time passes
  before they ask me for something
• It is lonely at the top
• Presidents as people

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Defend the Leader

• Loyalty to the leader as an individual
• Active support
• Confidentiality
• Loyalty to the decisions that the leader makes
• In the leader-follower relationship, leaders have
  an obligation to listen to the input of followers
  
• In return, followers have an obligation to
  support the resulting decision

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The Duty to Obey

• If we choose to continue being a follower, we
  have the responsibility of implementing the
  policies of the leader
• We have the right to challenge policies at the
  policy-making stage we do not have the right to
  sabotage them in the implementation phase
• Those who sabotage their leaders efforts are no
  longer followers they are opponents
• If you cannot support a decision, then you must
  reassess your role and relationship to the
  institution and the leader
• In some cases, you should leave the organization

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The Five Dimensions of the Courageous Follower

• Ira Chaleff introduces the idea of the
  courageous follower
• The courage to assume responsibility
• The courage to serve
• The courage to challenge
• The courage to participate in organizational
  change
• The courage to leave

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The Courage to Assume Responsibility

• Leaders ache for followers who will show
  initiative
• Assume responsibility for yourself and your
  organization
• Discover or create opportunities to fulfill their
  potential and maximize their value to the
  organization
• Focus on the critical path

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The Courage to Serve

• They assume new or additional responsibilities to
  unburden the leader and serve the organization
• They stay alert for areas in which their
  strengths complement the leaders and assert
  themselves in these areas
• Courageous followers stand up for their leader
  and the tough decisions a leader must make if the
  organization is to achieve its purpose
• The responsibilities of gate keeping
• Focus the leader

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The Courage to Challenge

• Courageous followers give voice to the discomfort
  they feel when the behaviors or policies of the
  leader or group conflict with their sense of what
  is right
• They are willing to stand up, to stand out, to
  risk rejection, to initiate conflict in order to
  examine the actions of the leader and group when
  appropriate

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The Courage to Participate in Org Change

• When behavior that jeopardizes the common purpose
  remains unchanged, courageous followers recognize
  the need for organizational change
• They champion the need for change and stay with
  the leader and the group while they mutually
  struggle with the difficulty of real change

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Cultures that Embrace Change

• Information is broadly shared
• Dialogue about important decisions is invited
• Sacred cows are gently led to pastureall
  subjects are open for discussion
• To encourage uninhibited thinking, processes are
  established for generating creative approaches
  that are distinct from the processes for
  evaluating those approaches
• Distinctions are made between an idea and its
  originator so status does not cloud value
• Even "wild" ideas are not discounted, but
  examined for new ways of thinking they may open
• Even "sensible" ideas are tested against
  different scenarios to see if they hold up under
  scrutiny

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A Basic (and Pretty Good) Change Formula

• Sense of urgency
• Build the guiding team (right people on the bus)
• Get the vision right
• Communicate for buy-in
• Empower action execute
• Reward right (added)
• Create short-term wins
• Dont let up
• Make change stick

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The Courage to Leave

• Courageous followers know when it is time to
  separate from the leader and the group
• Self-growth or organizational growth may require
  a courageous follower to eventually leave even
  the most enlightened and effective of leaders
• When leaders are ineffective or their actions are
  detrimental to the common purpose and they are
  not open to transformation, the need for
  separation becomes even more compelling

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Cultivating Exceptional Followers
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Key Strategies

• Work to increase the variety and complexity of
  assignments they receive
• Seek to enhance their skill sets
• Share the credit
• Never undermine their authority
• Mentor followers who hope to assume larger
  leadership roles
• Encourage and enhance dialogue
• Heighten their sense of accountability for the
  decisions they make
• Keep their confidences
• Empower them
• Acknowledge their value, both publicly and
  privately
• Reward them in ways they find meaningful
• Trust your followers

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Empowering Followers

• Rosabeth Moss Kanter cites four principles in
  which followers might become more powerful
• Give people important work to do on critical
  issues
• Give people discretion and autonomy over their
  tasks and resources
• Give people visibility and provide recognition
  for their efforts
• Build relationships for your people, connecting
  them with powerful people and finding them
  sponsors and mentors

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• The reason that most change
• efforts derail is because
• they focus on processes
• and not people.
• Systems wont change if
• people wont cooperate.
• People are the gatekeepers
• of change.

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Finding Your Followership Style
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rarely
Occasionally Almost Always

• Does your work help you fulfill some societal
  goal or personal dream that is important to you?
• Are your personal work goals aligned with the
  organization's priority goals?
• Are you highly committed to and energized by your
  work and organization, giving them your best
  ideas and performance?
• Does your enthusiasm also spread to and energize
  your co-workers?
• Instead of waiting for or merely accepting what
  the leader tells you, do you personally identify
  which organizational activities are most critical
  for achieving the organization's priority goals?
• Do you actively develop a distinctive competence
  in those critical activities so that you become
  more valuable to the leader and the organization?
  
• When starting a new job or assignment, do you
  promptly build a record of successes in tasks
  that are important to the leader?
• Can the leader give you a difficult assignment
  without the benefit of much supervision, knowing
  that you will meet your deadline with
  highest-quality work and that you will fill in
  the cracks" if need be?
• Do you take the initiative to seek out and
  successfully complete assignments that go above
  and beyond your job?
• When you are not the leader of a group project,
  do you still contribute at a high level, often
  doing more than your share?

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rarely
Occasionally Almost Always

• Do you independently think up and champion new
  ideas that will contribute significantly to the
  leader's or the organization's goals?
• Do you try to solve the tough problems (technical
  or organizational), rather than look to the
  leader to do it for you?
• Do you help out other co-workers, making them
  look good, even when you don't get any credit?
• Do you help the leader or group see both the
  upside potential and downside risks of ideas or
  plans, playing the devil's advocate if need be?
• Do you understand the leader's needs, goals, and
  constraints, and work hard to help meet them?
• Do you actively and honestly own up to your
  strengths and weaknesses rather than put off
  evaluation?
• Do you make a habit of internally questioning the
  wisdom of the leader's decision rather than just
  doing what you are told?
• When the leader asks you to do something that
  runs contrary to your professional or personal
  preferences, do you say "no" rather than ''yes"?
• Do you act on your own ethical standards rather
  than the leader's or the group's standards?
• Do you assert your views on important issues,
  even though it might mean conflict with your
  group or reprisals from the leader?

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Finding Your Followership Style

• Add the scores from the following
• questions (independent thinking)
• 1. _____
• 5. _____
• 11. _____
• 12. _____
• 14. _____
• 16. _____
• 17. _____
• 18. _____
• 19. _____
• 20. _____
• TOTAL _____

• Add the scores from the following
• questions (active engagement)
• 2. _____
• 3. _____
• 4. _____
• 6. _____
• 7. _____
• 8. _____
• 9. _____
• 10. _____
• 13. _____
• 15. _____
• TOTAL _____

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Add up your ratings on the independent thinking
items. Mark the total on the vertical axis of the
graph to the right. Repeat the procedure for
the active engagement items and mark the total on
the horizontal axis. Now plot your scores on
the graph by drawing perpendicular lines
connecting your two scores.
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Bibliography

• Bennis Organizing Genius
• Buckingham First, Break All the Rules
• Carlyle On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic
  in History
• Chaleff, Ira. The Courageous Follower Standing
  Up To and For Our Leaders
• Gardner, John. On Leadership
• Greenleaf, Robert K. Servant Leadership A
  Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power and
  Greatness
• Habecker, Eugene B. Leading With a Followers
  Heart
• Katzenbach, Jon R. and Douglas Smith. The Wisdom
  of Teams

• Kelly, Robert E. In Praise of Followers,
  Harvard Business Review
• . The Power of Followership How to Create
  Leaders People Want to Follow and Followers Who
  Lead Themselves
• Kriegel, Robert. Sacred Cows Make the Best
  Burgers
• Peters (re)Imagine!
• Robbins Why Teams Dont Work
• Sevier, Robert A. How to Be An Exemplary
  Follower, Trusteeship

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Books by Bob Sevier
Available from case.org or strategypublishing.com