One of the very first things written down in my leadership notes is “a leader cannot lead without followers,” so it’s about time that we read a piece that focused on this very important component of leadership. Robert Kelley’s “In Praise of Followers” turns the camera away from the leaders and focuses on the importance, the types, and qualities of followers. It is very different to think about what makes a good follower because our society makes us push to be in the position of power instead of settling for a subordinate. I did think that the last section on cultivating effective followers was entirely designed for leaders and companies because they want to craft good employees to make their company run more smoothly.
One thing that stood out and kinda bothered me was the choice of examples that Kelley used. In the example for “commitment” and the two examples for “competence and focus,” he used examples of women. Seeing this, I was both excited and a little upset because I love the exemplifying of women doing something right (esp. because one was a woman in STEM yay!), but I also disliked that one of the first articles we have read that does this is exemplifying them as followers. Even though Kelley argues that followership is not a subordinate role, it is still viewed as one in our culture; whether we think it should be or not is a separate question. When he got to the example of “courage,” I became especially unhappy because Kelley used an example of a man but treated him differently than the aforementioned women. He gave this example a name (Jerome LiCari) when the women’s stories were referred to in general terms. Though I enjoyed the content of the article, I found this snub very hard to get over.
I agree that our society has very little respect for followers. I feel like leaders are credited with accomplishments that came from what their followers were able to do. More leaders need to realize that without their followers they are somewhat meaningless.
I also agree that acknowledging the critical role that followers play is essential. Without workers, large businesses and corporations would fall apart. Many managers and high-ranking positions know little to nothing about their actual clients.
Although I didn’t pick up on the examples that Kelley used I think it’s great that you saw it as it shows an example of implicit bias–even if he may not have meant it in a derogatory way, the bias is evident.