After many years and publications in search of the holy grail of specific leader traits, behaviors, or styles to create more effective organizations, the leadership discipline has given rise to many insights and ideas that work…sometimes. Certainly, leaders matter and findings in the field suggest some consistent character, competence, and conduct dimensions that tend to align to good leadership. However, the focus on leaders and leadership often has led to overlooking or underestimating the importance of followers and followership. Followers often have been associated with passive roles and doing what they are told. The result has been a mindset in both the discipline as well as society at large that leaders are more important than followers and that people should strive to be a leader and not a follower.

In their new book, Essentials of Followership: Rethinking the Leadership Paradigm with Purpose, Dr. Mike Linville and Dr. Mark Rennaker explore the growing field of followership and discover that followers matter far more than we think they do. Although the simple act of following might be considered passive, followership is something entirely different. Effective followers are proactive. They demonstrate engagement, constructive challenge, critical thinking, leader/other support, and collaboration. While leaders exert leadership influence on followers, followers exert followership influence on leaders and other followers. 

In this webinar, attendees will learn: 

• Leadership and followership are part of something larger: Purposeship
• The differences between following and followership
• The often unrecognized fluidity of the leader and follower roles
• Key principles of followership
• Leader + Follower + Organizational Context + Purpose = The Leadership System