Leadership / Followership.
Leadership simply put is an act of motivating other people to achieve a common goal. Authentic leadership is when someone is open-ended, visionary always reflective and hopeful. A good leader to me is being true to oneself.
A healthy balance between leadership and followership can nurture the school environment.
Some of us are followers most of the time and leaders some of the time. Others are the opposite; leaders most of the time and followers some of the time.
There is a misconception that real leaders don’t follow…. I disagree with this. A good leader knows when to follow and when to lead. They can see the potential in the collaboration and creativeness in working together.
In Social Media these day - we “follow” lots of things. Where we sit and passively wait for things to appear on our screens from them. That is not true to life.
Followers are not passive, together with their leaders they show a highly skilled process of collaboration.
There are many different types of Followership in schools. For example; a “Weak Follower” - these kinds of people can be restrictive to the learning pathway and direction the school is on.
A Self-Serving Followers - They have their own agenda and are not fully part of the collaborative team thriving for the best for everyone around them. A follower who is fighting against the leader can alter and change the course of learning. A good follower can help steer their leader, who may be off balance and stabilise them.
Following is being adaptable to be able to come up with responses and innovations that genuinely fit the circumstances around us.
