“Oh, Man! I can’t believe I did that.”

I’m reviewing my life (so far). I suppose that might be expected for someone my age. After all, looking back is easier than looking forward, reflecting is easier than planning to change and at seventy-five there’s a lot to review.

The presenting cause for all this historical navel-gazing is my new “career” as a writer.(Can I call work for which I am not paid a career? Dunno.) I am writing three books, Traveling the Consulting Road, Change Leader? Who Me?, and  Wisdom from Unusual Places.

The first book could be called, “My Mistakes as a Consultant.” The second might be titled “My Mistakes Leading Change,” and the third “My Mistakes in Life, plus some interesting people who tried to set me straight.” Are you sensing a theme?

Truth be told, for much of my life, I was a terrible follower. In cleaning out my parents’ house I came upon my fourth grade report card – My grades were still As and Bs, but Mrs. Keshan had written a note to my folks.

“Alan is bright, catches on very quickly, but if he doesn’t get over his problem with authority, it will limit him in his life.”

I don’t feel particularly limited, but for most of my life, I battled anyone who had the slightest bit of power over me. I used to joke as an independent consultant, “I work for myself because I discovered I’m a lot nicer to clients than I am to bosses.”

And I taught Leadership

This is perhaps a slight exaggeration. I designed and ran multiple workshops about leading change for corporate managers. I came to simplify the difference between managers and leaders. “managers get the work done in a (relatively) steady state and develop people: leaders work in abnormal circumstances (emergencies, war, change) and are accountable for direction and attracting followers.”

I emphasized attracting followers, by joking “If you think you’re a leader, look over your shoulder, if there’s no one there, you might just be delusional.” There was more to my practice than jokes, but I don’t think I spent enough time on followership.

Following can be an act of Leadership

I wasn’t always a poor follower. Several times in my life, I was committed to an idea, a leader’s vision, the purpose of an organization. I worked hard to get stuff done, not just stuff I was assigned to do, but stuff that aligned with the vision that I saw needed to be done. I built my own competency and asked for help when I needed it. I encouraged peers to have the same spirit and confronted anyone who veered away from the vision.

I experienced good followership in many contexts, Boy Scouts, the theatre, Habitat for Humanity house building, and at various points in every job I had, factory worker, waiter, booking agent, trainer, and consultant.

Recently, I read an Psychology Today blog post by Dr. Ronald Riggio, professor of n Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Claremont McKenna College, entitled “In Praise of Followership.” Dr Riggio referenced an Harvard Business Review article “In Praise of Followers,” written by Dr. Robert Kelley of Carnegie Mellon University, which I had read when I lived in Pittsburgh in the late 80s. I reread that article.

Here are some points from each:

Dr Riggio:

• “Research on leadership has paid little attention to the critical role of followers.
• Leaders and followers co-create leadership in a specific context. There is no leadership without followers.
• It is imperative that followers support the leader when the mission is a good one or stand up to the leader when the path and goals are wrong.”

Dr. Kelley

• A good follower has active behavior and independent critical thinking
• Good followers self-manage well
• Good followers commit to the vision, the organization, the purpose or the mission.
• Good followers build the competencies they need to deliver.
• Good followers, are courageous, honest, and credible.

No where does either professor recommend sucking up to a leader, nor blind loyalty, nor only delivering news the leader wants to hear, nor putting up with a toxic environment.

Learning to become an effective follower

Dr. Kelley uses a matrix to evaluate follower behavior.

The upper right, effective follower quadrant shows independent, critical thinkers with active behavior patterns.

Followers Kelley calls “sheep” are too willing to accept whatever the Leader thinks or says.

Those he calls “Yes people” operate from fear or seek approval, betraying the requirement for courage and honesty, and losing all credibility as a result.

When I failed as an effective follower, my particular failure mode too often fell into the alienated follower quadrant with passive-aggressive behavior I might have described as “righteous indignation.” Over time I learned how to “disagree agreeably,” as Kelley recommends, but it took me far too long.

According to Kelley effective followers confront leaders constructively. I have done more than my share of confronting, some more constructive than others. Perhaps my best follower behavior though was in getting stuff done. I learned early to deliver on what I was assigned and to look for things that needed to be done and just doing them. That trait increased my workload, but it bought me some forgiveness for my “disagreeable disagreement.”

Some my best follower behavior I honed in leaderless groups, or teams where the leadership role rotated according to the skills and knowledge needed. I also learned a great deal from facilitating groups and keeping my own opinions to myself.

I’m still working on the “problem with authority,” counter-dependent behavior thing. I’m helped in that struggle by the fact that as a retiree I have fewer bosses and as an old man others seem to just shake their heads and smile when I get obstreperous.

I’ve also learned that “do as I say not as I do doesn’t work with children and grandchildren,” so they’re lousy followers too, but. . .

. . . maybe some of you, dear readers, can learn from my mistakes.

Learn to follow.