9 Personality Traits of Ideal Followers

Personalitytraitsofidealfollowers

The most common yet underrated and overlooked role that we play in life is the one that none of us admits to aspiring to: the role of follower. Although we are all followers in many capacities in our lives, follower ranks a distant last as a popular topic in the research and writing on the dozen most common roles that we play in life—parent, mother, father, sister, brother, friend, leader, manager, employee, teacher and student.

When the boss is pleased with our followership, we position ourselves for pay raises, promotions and job assignments that enhance our standard of living and quality of work life. When the boss is disappointed, we jeopardize our job security, fail to earn pay raises that maintain our standard of living and frequently relegate ourselves to the least appealing assignments in our work environments. You would think that more attention would be devoted to the subject of followership, yet, instead, we academic types are almost obsessively focused on leadership. An important question we should be asking is, “How can followers win when leaders get all the glory?”

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Followership is underrated. Unlike leaders, followers are protected from the hell of disgruntled and malcontent employees who complain about everything—colleagues, assignments, pay, performance evaluations, lack of recognition, denial of promotions, failure to be consulted and simply not getting their way. Followers are freed from saying no to people they genuinely care about and to people who will forever hold it against them. Followers are free from being a referee between battling factions or from rendering judgments that create winners and losers. Followers are liberated from having to fire employees and can dodge conflicts and problems that leaders are forced to address.

 

Followership is underrated. Unlike leaders, followers are protected from the hell of disgruntled and malcontent employees who complain about everything—colleagues, assignments, pay,

 

Ultimately, organizations have fewer reasons to terminate followers, and companies have fewer opportunities and reasons to sue followers. Although the average length of stay in a management occupation is quite high (almost seven years), a survey of approximately 5,000 executives, search consultants and corporate human resource professionals indicates that the average tenure in office of a business executive is only 2.3 years. Although I assert that abusive bosses and dehumanizing work are not to be tolerated, a follower’s role in an enjoyable job with a fair and reasonable boss is typically a substantially less stressful work experience than serving in a leadership role.

Although the leadership literature might be King Kong and the followership literature a mere mouse, enough has been written on followership to give you direction on what you should be striving for in order to become a more ideal follower. I looked at 27 studies that identified 278 qualities of exemplary followers. Many of those qualities overlapped, and I was able to boil them down to a more manageable set of nine traits.

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9 Traits of Ideal Followers

1. They’re effective communicators.

Their communications are understandable, accurate, complete and timely. Although you might instinctually think that speaking up is not what a good follower does, research reveals that speaking up, being open, offering opinions and persuading are also characteristics of followers who communicate effectively.

2. They’re hustlers.

Sitting back and keeping your head down is a no-no. Followers should be energetic, take initiative, participate, be proactive and “just do it.”

3. They have strong social skills.

They are highly interactive network builders who are friendly, diplomatic and socially intelligent.

4. They’re team players.

This one should be painfully obvious. Ideal followers are strong team players who value collaboration, cooperation and interdependence.

5. They’re responsible.

Being a follower is less stressful than being a leader, but they still need to be strongly responsible, which includes being accountable, knowing and doing one’s job, following through, accepting delegation, and taking ownership.

6. They’re flexible.

In a fast-changing economic context, adaptability is important. Followers need to be flexible and adaptable, capable of managing change and being “a player for all seasons.”

7. They have integrity.

Another trait that I would hope would apply to both leaders and followers is integrity as reflected in honesty and credibility, both ethically and morally.

8. They’re committed.

Of course, it’s possible to do a job and not be committed to the organization behind the work. However, research reveals that organizations value committed members. And it makes sense. Without commitment, how can a follower be an honest team player watching out for the best interest of the organization and colleagues?

9. They’re competent.

Although some followers might possess all of the virtues on this list, they are, ultimately, useless unless they are competent or proficient in performing their jobs. Moreover, having the capacity to divert crises is an especially attractive competency in the eyes of superiors.

Before I finish singing the praises of followership, I won’t mince words. Followership has a serious downside when employees are placed in growth-depressing jobs or subordinated to abusive or incompetent leaders. The power that superiors have over their subordinates is especially problematic when bosses exercise autocratic control and a punitive approach to management. Followership can be unbearable when denied self-determination and self-expression, or when a climate of fear casts its ominous shadow over a work environment.

Despite the common problems that followers face, there are advantages to being a follower that should put a smug smile on all of our faces. For one, if you are a person who does not enjoy nor is stimulated by the diversity of responsibilities of leadership positions, then a follower role is much more likely to reduce stress and enhance job satisfaction. If you are currently placed in a more narrowly defined job that allows you to focus on what you really enjoy doing, you would be foolish to hop on the elevator to a leadership role. Not only do you open the door to jobs that you hate, poor performance in leadership roles can put you on the downward escalator leading to your employer’s exit door.

Being the ideal follower from the perspective of management is only part of winning at following. You win at following through working in jobs that bring you satisfaction in organizations that are compatible with your natural followership style. Put simply, to win at following, become an invaluable subordinate working in jobs that you love in organizations that love you back.

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J. Norman Baldwin is a professor of political science at the University of Alabama, where he has served as director of Graduate Programs, Undergraduate Programs, and the master of the Public Administration Program.

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