Every individual should heed this lesson: Never delay taking the lead or resigning yourself to a subordinate role. Engage your system with every fiber, and be intentional about what you want to learn and achieve. Stay true to your integrity and speak up when your inner voice demands it. Time is more fleeting than you dare to imagine.
Although Margot bears responsibility for the practice, everyone on the team holds a significant role in the delivery. Weekly team meetings are free-form, informal, and unchaired. These sessions have minimal structure, and all are invited to contribute. While each person “plays” in their position, Margot sees herself more as a team captain. The playing field is level, and she describes the meetings as a “democracy of ideas” sourced from those with the clearest insights at any given moment. There are no barriers preventing any team member from temporarily “playing out of position,” such as visiting a client.
Just as there’s no yin without yang, there’s no leadership without followership. The two interdependent and complementary roles can’t exist without each other.
Context
Suggest ways for the team to do things differently. Try to change the context of how and where team meetings take place. Demote the boardroom table and see if simply sitting in a circle without a physical barrier changes the energy and engagement. One top team that I have interacted extensively with does this regularly. The team is productive, connected, and harmonious.
Moreover, this construct hampers true innovation and experimentation, often negatively affecting results. These individuals need to find and use their voice and be courageous in the face of authority. In Kegan’s words, they must move to the fourth order—the self-authoring mind—and metaphorically pick up the pen to become the author of their own destiny.
Courage
Rather than keeping quiet, gently challenge leaders when you disagree. This doesn’t need to be done publicly; an email or casual conversation over coffee will suffice. Biting your tongue makes you part of the problem and creates internal dissonance because you’re not being true to yourself.
Followership is the symbiotic interchange between a leader and those they seek to influence. However, the word has long carried connotations of subservience, implying that followers are subordinates—a term derived from the Latin word for “lower order.” This notion is deeply misguided.
Although the concept of followership is often associated with hierarchy, in organizations the reality is that important things are accomplished through meaningful discussions between groups of people horizontally. And although it’s true that individuals “hold” symbolic positions of authority, for organizations to flourish, the distance between authority figures and those executing important work needs to be greatly reduced.
At the same time, team members must explore avenues to express their thoughts and ideas. They need full support to take risks, build confidence, and develop their leadership potential. However, many feel blocked from doing so. Early life experiences and ingrained expectations of authority can foster a high degree of dependency on leaders for instruction and guidance.
Like Margot, leaders should give their direct reports the opportunity to express themselves, experiment, innovate, and feel that they will be supported should things go wrong. It’s vital to build psychological safety so that team members feel confident to speak up.
Learn the art of skilled communication. Challenge with care, solicit other views, and use the phrase, “I’m wondering if…” as a preface rather than, “I think….” It’s a neat way to introduce an idea without triggering the immediate response of “Well, I think… (the opposite).”
The mere fact that we’re talking about leaders and followers implies a duality. But in truth, there is none. We’ve moved to a paradigm where these positions are interchangeable. Leadership and followership are fluid, and those roles should be allocated according to the situation and demands.
Harvard developmental psychologist Robert Kegan explains this phenomenon through “orders of consciousness.” According to his model, about 58% of the population resides in the third order, the socialized order, where they are dependent on, and seeking or bound to, authority. This mindset tends to stifle their voices and drain their energy. They may become aware of the dichotomy between what they believe is right and what they are instructed to do.
Published Feb. 29, 2024, by INSEAD.