In keeping with his competitively, combative nature, the homily on the plaque at the front of his desk bucked corporate convention and confronted you with a challenge. It bluntly left no doubt as to his expectation of what you were there to do. “Lead, Follow, or get the Hell out the way.”

And no one was left in any doubt as to which of these three actions he was there to fulfill. It can be endlessly debated at water coolers and over dinner (and often is) whether he is, in fact, the leader. But in his mind, there is no doubting or debating the fact. He is the ultimate leader of the New York Yankees baseball team, and his name is George Steinbrenner.

What is interesting in this characteristically sanguine maxim is Steinbrenner’s acknowledgement of followers. It is a given that all leaders have followers. In fact, there cannot be a leader without a follower (for what is a leader without followers if not marooned in a state of solipsistic limbo?).

The importance of followship. It's everywhere, get used to it.

BGG - you can do better than that. Why isn't it?

Surely the point everyone is hacked off with is that "followship" is just another corporate yuckspeak type word invented to describe qualities that have been in exisitance in both the military and civil worlds since the year dot. Alexander the Great was an effective leader, who no doubt had effective "followers" or wouldn't have achieved all that he did - it is not a new concept.....just a new bo**ocks buzzword!!!

As I have said, it is not new, it largely refers to your ability to be a team player, which is how it used to be described in military reports. Most teams, to be effective, have a leader. One of the aspects of being a good team player is support (but not unqualified support!) for the leader. I haven't attended any "followship" briefings, but it seems to me the term concentrates almost exclusively on the efectiveness of the followers support for the leader. There is actually far more to being a good team player than just your relationship with the leader, such as your interaction with and support of other team members....

Therefore it seems to me that describing someones effectiveness as a team player actually covers more ground than their effectiveness as a "follower". It also strikes me that "followship" is a phrase invented/beloved of leaders who want people to "follow" them more blindly.......

Followship is excellent creative work. I raised the wider issue a while back here:

http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...iginality.html

but am beginning to wonder about the merits of the argument. The whole management bolleaux 'piece' may have some benefits:

if you put an infinite number of monkeys in a room with an infinite number of typewriters you'll eventually get the complete works of Shakespeare...

I'll caveat that by acknowledging the low number of typewriters at Air Command...:}

my point being that, eventually, they have to come up with something good.

Being serious onhere for a change, a good number of us from all Services attended a resettlement seminar, about 40 I guess. I think most ranked in the flt lt - sqn ldr bracket with the odd wg cdr.

We all completed the Myers-Briggs personality profile. About 2 people scored top left, IIRC, these were leaders with little regard for those following. The women tended towards one of the bottom corners and the majority, men, to the other corner. I think the women were in the more creative block.

Now by definition, everyone there was a leader. However we few would actually have been leaders from the front but leaders following the main leader.

Now the crux of the question should concern their airships.

How many of them are true leaders in the Harris, Dowding, Trenchard mold? Many start on the road to the stars but stop off on the landing others like the Seeb Air Cdre jump off.

My point at the beginning of this thread was that our leadership have invented a word, which does not exist in the dictoinary, without defining what it means, when there are perfectly good words which have sound provanance already in existance.

Everyone in uniform is a subordinate to the monarchy via the in-place government.

The armed forces only work because of the good will (lets be old fashioned and call it a sense of duty) of its people. If each and every one of us did only our primary duty there would be a massive shortfall in output and lifestyle.

In fact there was a good article in Air Clues many years ago - possibly the 70s - entitled 'The Art of Good Followship'. I would love to find it if anyone knows where I can.

So, possibly not the figment of their Airships yuckspeak imagination!

Cheers

Larss

'Look, Boss. If you wanted a 'yes man' working for you that means one of us is redundant'

Great big flashing irony caption :E

I seem to remember the topic of followership being discussed on by Sgts course in the mid 90's and on many Human Factors courses since. It would be interesting to see Mannings definition of Followership and how it is to be included in appraisals. Another thing manning should perhaps start examining is Toxic Leadership.

We know the definition of Followership - its in the dictionary.

What we need to know is the definition of Followship. I always thought that the OED was the definitive source for service writing.

Aaron.

I had never heard this term before, but have experienced it at first hand. Many times I had heard of leaders feathering their own nest but that article is very well written putting much flesh onto the bones previously referred to as a selfish t***. Worthy of note that toxic leadership is not seen by the Command Chain only by subordinates.

Perhaps if the chain of command look for it, then perhaps it would be seen after all. FWIW I think that such a stance is infectious in a similar manner that discontent (low morale) amongst the troops is.

Sometimes it is. I know a particular gp capt never missed a happy hour on any section. He might have had dirty ears but he certainly knew all about his 'leaders'.

I've just scanned several really sad Intranet websites. :{

"The RAF Leadership Objectives and Attributes" which are published as "Notes for the assistance of Reporting Officers in commenting on Leadership in Appraisal Reports" by the RAF Leadership Centre uses 'Followership'. It does not use 'Followship' or any other variation.

Operation MOLEHILL is now stood down. Those currently drafting letters of outrage to the Daily Mail are to cease. Those on Q are to return to eating and sleeping. Those retired are to reduce consumption of Worthers Originals.

The OP seems pretty reliable.

That it is not visible on the intranet is possibly an accurate testimony to the effciency of the MOD Intranet search engine. IME it often fails to find something on the current page!

Followship may be an invented word but I for one really like it!
Let's face it, the ideal of "leadership and followership" beats the hell out of any old fashioned "control and be controlled" philosophy adopted by some military commanders of the past.

The question of 'blindly following' is discussed in great depth in the book; "On the Psychology of Military Incompetence" by Norman F. Dixon.