Leaders vs. Followers

Which is indispensable?

What do the following people, Abraham Lincoln, Angela Merkel, Genghis Khan, Queen Elizabeth I, Alexander the Great, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, all have in common?

This question was prompted by Paul Myers, whose excellent article, What is the Significance of The Leader-Member Exchange (LMX), brings to light the relationship between leaders and followers and how they might adapt to the ever-changing world we live in.

Timothy Key, also tagged by Paul, responded with his take on the same subject; an equally interesting article, entitled, Leadership Theory Versus Leadership Reality. (Loved his lead photo.) 😊

I was asked by Paul last Sunday, to give my take on this subject. Pretty straightforward I thought — and then the riots came. And the looting, the heartache in watching history repeat itself and the feeling that leaders in general, had gone the way of the Dodo, leaving us to fend for ourselves. A few days have passed. Reason is slowly seeping back into the picture. And the leaders we do have, are filling the vacuum.

I think it more important now than ever to put a finger on what a leader is and shed some light on how one is created. And more importantly, help to define what a great follower is.

As Paul pointed out in his article, there are no leaders without followers. And there are no great leaders, without those behind them, putting in place the infrastructure needed to bring about a thriving group, corporation or country.

Which begs the question, what do those named above have in common?

Hint — if your answer was that they were the respective leaders of their nations or empires, that was not the common trait I was looking for, but close.

They were all Managers.

Drawing from the Latin root, Manus (meaning hand), a Manager is someone who takes it upon themselves to get something done.

A manager effectively leads people and things. They have a hands-on approach to running any area. And quite honestly, their importance and indispensability in supporting a leader is often overlooked. While a leader rightfully assumes a position in front of the group, it is often those standing behind him who are acquiring the resources, mustering the troops and executing the plans necessary to move the entire operation forward.

Over time, the term leader, has been stretched a little too thin in trying to be a one-size-fits-all solution for what we call people that run things.

It is my contention that the basic skills that allowed each of the above individuals to rise to and achieve their level of success, and certainly maintain it, had more to do with their ability to manage people and things, than the more vaunted and elusive qualities of leadership itself.

And when I say manage, I am not strictly speaking to the higher-level qualities of communication, etiquette, empathy, sympathy and other traits typically associated with people in business or public service today. After all, two of the leaders I mention above, were directly involved in the slaughter of untold numbers of soldiers and innocents that got in their way as they became the leaders of great empires. In their worlds, in their times, violence was a fact of life and an expedient for organizational change. And death, was not simply the cessation of life, but the elimination of future barriers to progress as they saw it.

Should those who lead nations, whose decisions affect millions of people and whose poor choices cost people their livelihoods, their futures and in many cases their lives, be described in the same terms as someone who heads a 300-person corporation making cutting edge hair products?

I don’t think so.

Leader vs. Manager

Managers manage people. They bring people and resources together and generate products and services as a result of this union. Without managers in every sector of society, things simply do not get done. In many cases, they are the unwaveringly loyal people, supporting the goals of the group and making the leader’s job much easier to maintain.

Leadership on the other hand, is often a position driven affair. Meaning that once someone attains the position of President, Prime Minister, Chancellor or King, they are automatically considered to be a leader. Even if upon closer inspection they fail to gain the trust and confidence of those who follow them and actually do the work, that drives the success or failure of that nation.

Therefore, a leader is something other than, someone in charge. A ideal leader is a person who transcends the role of manager and not only becomes effective in achieving the goals and objectives of a group, but through inspiration, determination and a keen understanding of the lives of the people, gets them to buy in to the dream and accompany them on the journey.

Leaders Vs. Followers

LMX focuses on the triad of Leaders, Members and Relationships as the building blocks of any good organization. How these three factors work together to produce the result of a thriving group, company or city. Leaders tend to gain the spotlight and become the focus of the organization’s success, and in most cases rightfully so. It doesn’t detract from their successes to point out the value and necessity of what the followers are doing behind the lights.

There is however, a stigma in the term follower. They are often perceived as someone incapable of leading. Sheep, who if given orders, food and money are thereafter deem content in their lot. It is this demeaning view of followership, that gets directly in the way of someone becoming a serviceable leader.

Followers are themselves, managers and leaders as well. In no group or company does the organizational hierarchy start with a leader on top and then fall precipitously to the bottom, where there is nothing but workers.

Good leaders select good managers, regardless of the title they are given. These managers put in place the people and procedures necessary to accomplish the goals set in place by the leader. It is a symbiotic relationship. A leader, standing on a stump, barking out orders is not a leader. He is at best a mid-range manager, who, given instructions by someone else, is merely trying to get them done, somehow, someway.

In his book, Courageous Followership, Ira Chaleff shows the potential for a more enlightened version of the relationship between leaders and followers. His words.

“THE MOST FREQUENT COMPLAINT I hear from leaders is that they would like the members of their team to assume more responsibility for the organization and initiate ideas and action on their own. While there are often very good reasons team members don’t do this, embedded in either the leader’s style or the organizational culture, it is interesting to hear that most leaders want their staff to take more initiative. They don’t want to be the only one leading.”

The relationship occurring in the workplace, between leader and follower is very nuanced and layered, and will become problematic, if all the factors that influence a follower’s life and well-being are not brought into the picture at some point. People have lives. They live with pressures, financial and personal. If we want to craft a thriving and productive relationship between leaders, managers and followers, then all aspects of a person’s life must at times be included in the conversation. Not as an excuse, not as a misdirection, but as a way of understanding why something or someone is not working as well as they should be.

A Leader sets the vision. A manager buys into that vision and through their expertise manages people and things, until the vision is achieved.

So, are leaders simply those people in charge, who are in a position to give orders, provide employment and otherwise have an important say in the follower’s life? Is it this position of varying power and influence over others that makes someone a leader?

In my estimation there are 2 overriding factors that contribute to good leadership.

1. A person’s ability to grasp the true purpose of a Manager, and then activity evolve that understanding into something different. Something that allows them to see the future of their organization and craft a vision that reflects that future.

2. The willingness and ability of the followers that fall in line behind a leader. Without their willingness to engage, persist and chase that vision, the relationship between these two keys characters will always be more adversarial than it need be.

I believe that studies like LMX, Courageous Followers and others are vital in understanding how leaders and members create lasting relationships everywhere, not just in business. If these organizations are to remain healthy, then managers and followers need to be treated with respect and looked upon as partners in the creation of prosperity. wealth.

It’s also vital that certain terms be separated. Most of the people we might select as a good leader, or a good boss, are those who listen, see and learn from the perspective of those following them. They are good managers, who understand where the followers are coming from, because they have been there themselves or have the empathy to learn.

Leadership is a natural progression from managership and both subjects should have their own terms that form a bridge from one area of expertise to the next. These terms in my opinion, should remain separate as much as possible.

Current leaders, like an Angela Merkel (DE) or Jacinda Ardern (NZ) or Nicola Sturgeon (UK) have become effective leaders, by first acquiring the attributes of good managership. Watching how they interact with those below them, who are the reason they are there, is fascinating to watch and learn from.

It’s not just a matter of semantics in using the correct terms. Calling someone a leader, who is not, lessens the value of the term in the eyes of those who provide the needed support in ultimately making a leader who they are — the managers and followers.

George J. Ziogas, Bill Abbate, Chris Hedges, Aurora Eliam, CMP, Kathryn A. LeRoy, Ph.D., Timothy Key, Michael Ritoch, Rosennab, Julia E Hubbel, Paul Myers MBA, Arthur G. Hernandez

Joe Luca is writer and editor for ILLUMINATION and a published author and writer of children’s stories, short fiction, non-fiction articles, screenplays and poetry. Publications include Child’s Life, Children’s Playmate and others. There are some other articles below — have a read. And thank you for stopping by.