Want to be a Better Leader? First, Become a Better Follower

As I noted in a previous blog post, leaders need the support of professionals to help them achieve organizational success. These followers, in turn, require specific aptitudes and skills to best serve their leaders. Followers need leaders as well. Moreover, everyone must have the skills to transition from followership to leadership roles and vice-versa. 

Like leadership, followership skills can be taught. To that end I’ve developed a workshop to introduce critical success factors for followers. Through individual activities, small group work, case studies, and discussion, program participants will learn to:

• Debunk myths and embrace realities about the importance of followership for leadership; 
• Identify followership styles; 
• Determine how personality, work style, career goals, and organizational issues shape followership attitudes and behaviors; 
• Identify key attributes of effective followers;
• Assess their own followership style;
• List daily activities to foster a mutually productive relationship with their supervisor (“manage their boss,” in other words); and 
• Develop a personal improvement plan to cultivate followership skills.

I tailor the material to meet the needs of participants and their organization. This followership workshop can be presented online or in-person. 

For more information on bringing this workshop on followership skills to your organization, contact me at 415-517-5756 or dr.mitchell.friedman (at) icloud.com.