discussion

As a leader what approach would be most appropriate for example mentioned below. What items items you found to be compelling and enlightening?

Followership has continued to become more important as organizations look for ways to build a competitive advantage.  Northouse (2018) shares that followership is about understanding the how and why of a follower’s response to leaders. Without followers there can’t be leaders.  Leaders must look beyond themselves and their attributes and understand the needs of the followers to inspire and influence them to help reach organizational goals.  Individuals even in management and leadership positions are followers and can benefit from understanding the influence of followership.  There are a variety of different followers as there are leaders.  Followers can learn how to be more effective as a follower and learn how to contribute to organizational success in collaboration with leadership (Rothstein, 2019). 

Explain at least two steps that leadership should take to be effective for their followers, based on your readings from the text this week.

Leaders should become knowledgeable about their followers and their responsibilities.  The first step would be to development a working relationship with followers.  A leader can help followers be more effective and help them contribute and stay engaged by understanding roles and defining expectations for organizational success (Northouse, 2018).  The next step a leader can take to be more effective is to communicate and provide clarity for organizational goals.  Followers must have a connection with the purpose and goal to understand their role and how to effectively utilize their skills and contribute to success.

Apply these steps to a current situation in which you are a follower. What approaches would be most appropriate for leading you, according to the theories you have explored this week, and why?

Leaders must be flexible and make adjustments to their leadership approaches to help align followers and leaders with common goals.  Situational leadership approach is an effective way to build relationships and adapt expectations of followers based on the situation or circumstances present.  The situational model is multiple dimensional and can be applied across all level of the organization (Northouse, 2018).  This approach helps followers in a variety of roles be more effective as followers through formation of leadership guided by the present situation.  As a follower the leadership co created process outlines the influence the leading and following behaviors have on each other. Leadership is said to occur as a result of the interaction of the two behaviors and then ultimately influencing the outcomes (Northouse, 2018).  These approaches would be effective for the current project I am responsible for.  As a midlevel manager I am a leader and follower and find that both the situational approach as a leader and a coexistence process provide clarity and unifies the team with organizational goals.  Each approach has a place in leadership and followership and effective leaders can learn when each is going to be beneficial.