Frequently Asked Questions

Is Followership the same as Managing Up?

No. Managing Up is a technique for accomplishing your agenda or goals. Followership is about supporting and getting on board with someone else’s agenda or goals. It is possible that you could be doing both at the same time if your agenda is the same as that of the other person. 

Is Followership the same as Self-Leadership? And what about Self-Followership?

We prefer to talk about leadership and followership as interpersonal skills: equal, dynamic and different. Followership is the complement to leadership, not “self-leadership”.

Self-leadership and self-followership are also complementary skills. Here is an example: an act of self-leadership could be creating your New Year’s resolutions: you are aiming to create the conditions for your better life. The complement to this is self-followership, which is when you adhere to and follow through on your resolutions. In general, people are poor at following their own frameworks. Self-followership is in short supply! (Shout out to Birna in Iceland for being the only one so far to ask us this smart question about self-followership!)

Why do we insist on using a term that many people hate: the F word, followership?

Because it’s accurate. We’ve been working in this space for >15 years, we’ve tried other words and they just don’t work. Much like the famous sex therapist, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, we prefer guidance that is blunt, clear and plain spoken. Seriously though, what is the problem with the word followership or follower? We all do it! And we’d all be better off if we did it well. Isn’t it funny how the taboo words are things everyone does?

You claim your partner-centric approach to leadership is original. Aren’t you basically talking about servant leadership? 

Thank you for bringing up servant leadership! In fact, we are fans. Servant leadership was popularized by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 in hopes of shifting best practice leadership styles from autocratic to democratic. We honour and build on his philosophy but for 21st century workplaces. Today, it’s not about occasionally being of service to your team members, it’s about always being in partnership with your team members. Sometimes you lead, and at other times you follow.