Leadership is not bestowed–it is yours only as long as it is continuously earned. B. J.Marshall

Leadership Doesn’t Come With A Management Title

The contradiction of management is that your organization can give you the power to be a manager but what they cannot do is give you the power to be a leader.

In practice, it’s only the people following you that can really give you the power to be a leader.

Here’s what I mean: If you’re a manager have you looked behind you to see if your team members are really following you?

When your organization gives you responsibility for running a work unit, it’s easy to get focused on the management part of the work unit (making things happen) and forget the leadership part of the work unit (getting others to want to follow your direction).

Before you go too far with planning, organizing, and directing your operations, take a look behind you and ask yourself the following question: Is anyone truly following me?

You may find, as sometimes happens with other managers, that your people in your work unit are not truly following you. Instead, they are just acting the part of a cooperative employee?

Here’s how this looks in practice:

Do your employees pay attention to your directions and comply with them when you are around only to stop following them when you are no longer present?

Do things only get done in your work unit when you are actively involved in making it happen?

If your answer to these questions is “yes”, then you may have a team of employees who accept you as their manager but have not yet accepted you as their leader.

The truth is that management and leadership are interconnected. Management doesn’t work well without leadership and leadership means little without followership.

Before you can manage an operation, a change effort, or anything else, you first have to lead it. And, to lead it, you have to have a group of committed employees who are willing to follow you!

You have to have a group of employees committed to followership?

What is Followership

Followership is the willingness of your team of employees to accept your direction. It’s their desire to follow your lead.

As a leader, you want the cooperation of your team members.

You need them to believe​​ — as you do — that your vision for the team is something worth working towards. You need them to feel some ownership!

If they do, they will help you to reach your goals even when things get tough in your organization.

To gain followership, you’ll need to fulfill certain requirements for your team of employees. They include the following:

First, to follow your direction, your employees must share your vision of where you want to go. If they don’t see the value of what you want to do, then they will not be committed to your goals.

Second, to follow your direction,  your employees must see you as a credible leader. If they do not see you as someone who lives by what they say, then they will view your actions and words about workplace operations with suspicion.

Third, to follow your direction, your employees must see you as competent. If they do not see you as able to manage the work unit within the organization, then they will be reluctant to give you their full cooperation.

If you don’t have followership from your employees, your work as a manager becomes much more difficult.

You can rightfully say that your team has to do what you say to keep their jobs. (And, people generally both need and want to keep their jobs.) It is also true that you are their boss and that means that you get to decide what to do and not do in your work unit.

However, if you have to always use force and punishment to get things done, this is a tough way to manage. Your employees may comply while you are around, but again they may just be acting the part of being a cooperative employee. Further, if your team members do not want to follow you, they can find ways to resist your leadership and make your  job a living hell!

How To Get Your Employees to Follow You

To obtain committed employees who want to follow you, you can do the following:

• Earn their respect by what you say and what you do. (Walk your talk.)
• Show your employees that you not only know where you are going but you know how to get there. (Explain why your plans and procedures are both needed and desirable.)
• Use your authority when you must but don’t overuse it to the point of harming your relations with your employees. (Use force and punishment tactics thoughtfully and sparingly.)

Before you can manage the employees in your work unit, you have to be able to lead them. Before you can become their leader, you have to earn their trust and respect.

The truth is that your organization can make you a manager, but your organization cannot make you a leader.

Only you and your employees can do that!

Your organization can give you a title and make you a manager but they cannot give you a title and make you a leader. Share on X​