Throughout much of this chapter, we’ve talked about demands on followers and how followers can become more effective and powerful in the organization. How- ever, the full responsibility doesn’t fall on the follower. Good followers are created partly by leaders who understand their requirements and obligations for developing people.52
Research indicates that followers have expectations about what constitutes a desirable leader.53 Exhibit 7.5 shows the top four choices in rank order based on surveys of followers about what they desire in leaders and colleagues.
Followers want their leaders to be honest, forward-thinking, inspiring, and competent. A leader must be worthy of trust, envision the future of the organiza- tion, inspire others to contribute, and be capable and effective in matters that will affect the organization.
Followers want their fellow followers to be honest and competent but also dependable and cooperative. Thus, desired qualities of colleagues share two quali- ties with leaders—honesty and competence. However, followers themselves want other followers to be dependable and cooperative rather than forward-thinking and inspiring. The hallmark that distinguishes the role of leadership from the role of followership, then, is not authority, knowledge, power, or other conventional notions of what a follower is not. Rather, the distinction lies in the clearly defined leadership activities of fostering a vision and inspiring others to achieve that vision.
Chapter 13 discusses vision in detail, and Chapter 14 describes how leaders shape cultural values that support achievement of the vision.
EXHIBIT 7.5 Rank Order of Desirable Characteristics
Desirable Leaders Are Desirable Colleagues (Followers) Are
Honest Honest
Forward-thinking Cooperative
Inspiring Dependable
Competent Competent
Source: Adapted from James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner,Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993), p. 255.
NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO
As a follower, you can support your leaders through difficult times, but have the courage to challenge your superiors when their behavior or decisions contradict the best interests of the organization.
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The results in Exhibit 7.5 also underscore the idea that behaviors of effective leaders and followers often overlap. Followers do not want to be subjected to leader behavior that denies them the opportunity to make valued contributions.
Leaders have a responsibility to enable followers to fully contribute their ideas and abilities. Four specific ways leaders enhance the abilities and contributions of followers are by offering clarity of direction; providing opportunities for growth; giving honest, constructive feedback; and protecting followers from orga- nizational roadblocks.
Clarity of Direction
It is the leader’s job to clearly communicate where the group or organization is going and why.54 Creating an inspiring vision is only one aspect of setting direc- tion. Followers also need specific, unambiguous goals and objectives on both an individual and team level. Numerous studies have shown that clear, specific, chal- lenging goals enhance people’s motivation and performance.55 Having clear goals helps people know where to focus their attention and energy, enables them to track their own progress, and lets them feel a sense of pride and accomplishment when goals are achieved.
Another aspect of clarifying direction is helping followers see how their own individual jobs fit in the larger context of the team, department, and total enter- prise. This is one reason many leaders use open-book management. When people can see the bigger financial picture, they have a perspective on where the organiza- tion stands and how they can contribute.
Opportunities for Growth
Leaders can act as coaches to help followers upgrade their skills and enhance their career development. Leadership coaching is a method of directing or facilitating a follower with the aim of improving specific skills or achieving a specific develop- ment goal, such as developing time management skills, enhancing personal productiv- ity, or preparing for new responsibilities. Coaching doesn’t mean trying to change people and make them something other than what they are. Instead, it means helping followers realize their potential.56
To understand what it means to be a leadership coach, consider the difference in mindset and behavior required for managing versus coaching:
Managing Coaching57
Telling Empowering
Judging Facilitating, removing obstacles
Controlling Developing
Rather than telling followers what to do, directing and controlling their behavior, and judging their performance, which is a traditional management role, leadership coaching involves empowering followers to explore, helping them understand and learn, providing support, and removing obstacles that stand in the way of their abil- ity to grow and excel.
Exhibit 7.6 shows benefits that followers get from leadership coaching, includ- ing gaining a new perspective, getting advice on handling specific organizational situations, dealing with organizational politics, and receiving encouragement and support. The biggest benefit that followers report, however, is getting clear, direct feedback on performance.58
212 PART 3 THE PERSONAL SIDE OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership coaching a method of directing or facilitating a follower with the aim of improving specific skills or achieving a specific development goal
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Frequent, Specific, and Immediate Feedback
Candid feedback is one of the most important elements contributing to the growth and development of followers, but many leaders don’t know how to give good feed- back.59Effective leaders see feedback as a route to improvement and development, not as something to dread or fear. When a leader provides feedback, it signals that the leader cares about the follower’s growth and career development and wants to help the person achieve his or her potential.60
Feedback occurs when a leader uses evaluation and communication to help individuals learn about themselves and improve.61 Effective leaders provide both positive and negative constructive feedback on an ongoing basis. If someone han- dles a difficult task, for instance, the leader offers feedback on the spot rather than letting the person wonder how effective he or she was, perhaps imagining the worst.
As former advertising account executive Ryan Broderick said, “hearing something is better than hearing nothing.”62
Followers appreciate positive feedback, but they also want to know when they aren’t doing what is expected of them, and they want the feedback to be specific enough to enable them to do better. Leaders who avoid giving any critical feedback “achieve kindness in the short term but heartlessness in the long run, dooming the problem employee to non-improvement.”63 Here are some ways leaders can provide feedback that benefits followers and takes less of an emotional toll on both leader and follower:64 1. Make it timely. People shouldn’t have to wait for an annual review to know how they’re doing or how they can improve. Leaders should give feedback as soon as possible after they observe a behavior or action they want to correct or reinforce.
Often, this means immediately, such as when a leader says, “Great job on the
EXHIBIT 7.6 Follower Benefits from Leadership Coaching
Source: “The Business Leader as Development Coach,”PDI Portfolio(Winter 1996), p. 6; and Personnel Decisions International, http://www.personneldecisions.com.
NEW LEADER ACTION MEMO
As a leader, you can make feedback a regular habit and remember to include positive comments and praise as well as critical feedback. As a fol- lower, you can view feedback as a chance to improve your- self. Reframe negative feed- back in a way that helps you take positive action toward what you want out of your work and life.
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Feedback
using evaluation and com- munication to help indivi- duals and the organization learn and improve
presentation, Sal, and you used graphics very effectively. The only place I see it could have been better would be including some specifics like past sales figures. Do you know where to find that information, or would you like me to set up a meeting with our sales manager?” If leaders wait to offer feedback, it should be only long enough to gather necessary information or to marshal their thoughts and ideas.
2. Focus on the performance, not the person. Feedback should not be used simply to criticize a person or to point out faults. A person who feels like he or she is being attacked personally will not learn anything from the feedback. The focus should always be on how the follower can improve. Leaders have to point out work that is poorly done, but it is equally important to reinforce work that is done well. This helps people learn from what they do right, and softens the impact of negative feedback.
3. Make it specific. Effective feedback describes the precise behavior and its conse- quences and explains why the leader either approves of the behavior or thinks there is a need for improvement. The leader might provide illustrations and examples to clarify what behavior is considered effective, and he or she always checks for under- standing rather than assuming the follower knows what actions the leader wants.
4. Focus on the desired future, not the past. Good leaders don’t drag up the failures and mistakes of the past. In addition, if it is clear that a follower’s mistake was a one-time occurrence and not likely to be repeated, the leader will let it go rather than offering negative feedback. Effective feedback looks toward the future, mini- mizes fault-finding, and describes the desired behaviors and outcomes.
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