Balancing leadership and followership

Phyllis Ndlovu | CEO | Kisima Psychological Services | mail me |

While leaders are expected to steer the corporate ship and make executive decisions in their organisations, employees – by the same token – need to consider some accountability for the roles they fulfil.

It takes a partnership of leaders and employees to make a success of an organisation, with both playing equally vital, but different, roles in building productive companies. That said, most present-day interventions tend to focus more on leaders in the workplace – and the attributes they need to lead as well as their obligation to create enabling environments – without a lot of attention being paid to what employees need to bring to the party.

In this article, I invite employees to step up, enjoy the agency they are afforded by their leaders and help take the company forward. This invitation to employees is on condition that their leaders are indeed effective, enabling and consistent in their expectations, andgenuinely inspire the achievement of organisational goals.

Own your role

In response to effective leadership, employees need to pause and ask themselves, “what is my contribution, how do I add value in achieving the organisation’s goals?” This personal ownership on the part of the employee transcends the transactional relationship of simply providing set hours for a pay cheque.

Employees also need to ask themselves whether what they are being tasked to do is aligned with what they themselves want to achieve for themselves. If the answer is “no”, then they are unlikely to be fully engaged, and leaders will find it hard to inspire them. In this instance, employees need to muster the courage to say, “maybe this is not my occupational home” and pursue a better suited role elsewhere.

That said, it must be acknowledged that there are limitations in South Africa’s job market. If employees choose to stay, instead of reluctantly showing up to do the bare minimum in their places of employ, they need to be intentional about finding purpose and some value in their roles. Luckily, human beings have been gifted with something known as neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to adjust, adapt and find value in a scenario that might not be one’s choice.

Neuroplasticity enables the brain to shift structurally and functionally and may allow employees to even find some purpose in what they’re doing, thereby staying engaged and relativelypositive.

Share feedback constructively

When employees have the courage to share feedback in a constructive manner and through appropriate channels, they make it easier for effective leaders to adjust their approach and ways of working.

However, when employees withhold their feedback or simply voice concerns amongst themselves, they place the organisation and their leaders on the back foot and undermine efforts to maintain an enabling environment.

Hold peers accountable

It is not sustainable to only look to the leader to hold everyone accountable. Of course, it forms part of the leader’s role, but to create an environment of collective ownership, where employees feel like they co-own various responsibilities with the leader, everyone needs to be accountable…