I found this podcast very interesting, specifically the discussion of the great man theory and invisible leadership because it reminded me of my leadership and the humanities class. It made me think about when we learned the concept of followership and how the definition has changed over time. Followership used to be thought of as an obedient act that was passive and lacked power. However now followership is thought to be more about critical non-obedience that elevates followers onto a separate and co-equal level with leaders since leadership is a collaborative process. Followers help advance leadership often by working behind the scenes to exercise upward influence that affects the change that their leaders with more hierarchical power get credit for. This reminded me of when Dr. Bezio discussed invisible leadership especially pertaining to the civil rights movement. While Dr. King and Rosa Parks may have been the face of essential parts of the movement, that does not discount the number of individuals who worked behind the scenes to plan the logistics, without which the movement would not have been possible.
I also liked the discussion on who controlled the history books because I believe we often forget that what we consider history does not capture the whole picture. White Christian men controlled the history narrative to paint themselves in a more positive light and the actions of the common people were forgotten because they were thought to be unimportant. It is important to use history to understand example scenarios of how people might react to possible situations but to not forget the bias that it was written with and does not entail everything that has happened.
I thought the point about followership is very important and is especially relevant now with so much technology. If you have a smartphone then it is easy to play about in creating the narrative that eventually becomes the past. I think it is good that more people get a say in controlling things, but it can also be dangerous and easily create misinformation.
I learned about followership in my leadership 101 class last semester as well! A key phrase I remember being told is not only can a leader not lead without the impact of followers, but followers are just as impactful, maybe even more impactful than leaders are. In order for leaders to be successful, they need to work towards the goals the followers want to achieve, and need to work closely with the followers, even if followers are just doing “background work”.
I liked your comments on historical control because it is something that is so prevalent but so hard to see. My mom, who was born in 1964, always says that she learned about Japanese internment when I did because it was never discussed in her classes. American historians and news outlets didn’t want to paint the country in a bad light, so it just wasn’t talked about until much later when Japanese-Americans were given a voice.