Blog Marjon Oosterhout: Is it about leadership or about follower-ship?

I was recently at a business school and asked a professor in Leadership “why are there so many leadership
development programs, but no followership programs, and are there any professors in followership”?
At the time I asked it, it wasn’t really a serious question. I also don’t think the professor took it as such.

However over a glass of wine with a colleague coach, we realized it wasn’t a silly question at all.
There are plenty of examples of (sometimes in hindsight) very poor leaders, including those who are
responsible for war and devastation of peoples life’s, who had many followers.

We also realized that we run the risk that leadership becomes a popularity contest. That we don’t value the
courage and integrity of leaders who bring less popular messages. This may be particularly the case in
politics.

Yesterday I had several interviews to collect feedback for Michael, a board-member in a healthcare
institute. As I listened to the feedback of the various stakeholder-groups my appreciation for Michael got
bigger and bigger. If he would meet all the expectations these stakeholders have of him, he would be
similar to a saint. And in listening there seemed to be little understanding amongst the different
stakeholders about how conflicting their expectations are. When I raised it they didn’t seem to care.

There is no doubt in my mind about the importance of leaders developing themselves. But I also believe
that “we” all of us who support and follow others who provide leadership to us need to develop.
We need to get better in selecting “our” leaders, but we also need to get better in helping (potentially) good
leaders to be successful.

I’m afraid this is not a small challenge…

Eerder gepubliceerd door Marjon Oosterhout, www.marjonoosterhout.com