When we think about leadership and the skills of a good leader, it is helpful to think about followers. Is a leader really a leader if he or she has no followers? But here’s the thing, a bad leader really can’t do much damage unless they have a group of bad followers who help do the damage. So as a leader, we should spend some time thinking about what we want from the people we ask to follow us.
Consider the figure below:
If the above figure was titled Leadership rather than Followership, would you have been surprised and thought I had mislabeled the slide? The point is that Followership is really just “leading from below”. We want the people who may feel lower than us in the hierarchy to act this way. It may help us prevent bad outcomes and keep patients safer.
It takes a lot of courage to be an engaged advocate on behalf of patients. People risk speaking up even if they might be wrong. If they are wrong when they speak up they may face ridicule or criticism rather than a “thank you” for letting us know that you had a concern.
It is worth reflecting on what type of followers you want and whether you are the type of leader that permits people to be the followers we all want.