Discussion: Followship

Do you think of yourself as a leader, a follower, or some of both? Why?
I’ve done both, but mostly go my own way. I think I would be more of a leader if I wasn’t dreadful at remembering names and faces, a skill that I’ve worked at far longer and harder than I ever did things like calculus (which I enjoyed and aced in High School).
Also, I don’t follow rules well unless I understand them, (if I try to follow a rule blindly, whether in math or in personal interactions, I’m bound to come up with some interpretation of the rules nobody else ever thought up, not because I want to, it just happens). And all rules have exceptions, so if I tend to act on my understanding, not on the rule. I suspect this would make me a frustrating follower for some leaders…I try to choose who I work with wisely.

What are some of the skills of a good follower?
I usually think of skills in terms of the tasks, and a good leader should give tasks to followers with the right skills & abilities, or at least with some aptitude and willingness to learn. I guess I’ll have to think more on this. I don’t like the buzz words you usually see, like “team player”.

Can followship be taught or learned, or is it innate?
I would say of course, all skills can be learned (by most people, anyway), but even more than stuff like reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic, you won’t get results unless someone is willing to follow. If someone won’t follow, then no amount of learning the skills will force them to do so. So, I guess it depends on whether you mean “followship” as skills that make one a good follower, once someone has chosen to follow, or whether you mean “willingness to follow”, which comes from one’s personality and convictions.
As to why someone won’t follow, I think that one common reason people find a Pagan religion in our society is that they were hurt in the name of their parents’ religion, often grievously. Being badly hurt by authority figures (even well-meaning ones) does not lend one emotional comfort with authority. I suspect that this means some of us will choose not to follow, but rather will be willing to “ally” with leaders. How much difference this makes, other than semantic, I’m not sure.
I also suspect that because we are willing to accept people who aren’t “just like us” we may have a higher proportion of people who have unusual social challenges because their brains function differently.

Do followers deserve respect? Why or why not?
Of course they do. They’re people.
From a practical standpoint, if you don’t treat them with respect, sooner or later (and in the Pagan community, sooner), they will stop treating you with respect. And people don’t follow people they disrespect, under ordinary circumstances.

How does the wider Pagan community view followers?
There’s some dissonance, I think. So many of us see people who would rather follow the current Christian Evangelical TV Preacher than think for themselves and take responsibility for their own actions and words, that I suspect for many of us, “follower” isn’t a compliment, especially in a religious context. We say things like “he was my teacher” or “I worked with him while he ran the festival”.

What does it mean for a follower to bestow their service on a leader?
Oh, this depends SO much on context. Let’s just say that in, say, running a Pagan festival, the lowest-level worker’s behavior and status is VERY different than privates in the military. (Hmm…the military works hard to make people good followers, but if it would take an equivalent of boot camp to do this, I’d rather herd cats!)

Here's another interesting idea: Suppose someone knows that he comes from a background with really crummy power dynamics. Having no good examples, he's not good at following even when the leader is decent and the task reasonable -- and he's not happy about that. Are there things he can do to work on it?

Most of the people I've seen trying to do this start by trying to be very formal, with explanations/expectations all very carefully agreed upon between him and the leader he's chosen. They also often try to do it in a very limited setting--a role playing game, their persona in the SCA, or for one limited goal or project. I assume that they then evaluate the results, whether formally or intuitively, but I do see that they need less formal structure eventually.

I don't know if this is a universal way to do it, but at least by strictly defining how they should act, they get a chance to experience something different than what feels "natural" based on past bad experiences.

And if it works poorly, then, well, it was an experiment, or it was the "actions of the character they were playing", and they can distance themselves from the failed expectation and also from other people's concerns that they will repeat that behavior. (At least, so long as they don't repeat that behavior.)

Cleaning out my e-mail, I found this rather belatedly. Sure.

Depending on what I'm managing in the way of writing at the time, and assuming it's non-fiction, I might want some sort of attribution.

Deirdre M. Murphy. I can understand not wanting to have to track things down later!

“How does the terminology and framing affect the structure and effects of followship?”

Oh, I think terminology and framing affect everything.

For instance, you can call someone’s firm stick-to-it-ive-ness stubbornness or will power. Which word “you” use almost always depends on whether you approve of the idea or task they are sticking to, or not. But which word you use in their hearing also affects them and your relationship with them.

I also think that choosing a word to use for “follower” that the followers are comfortable with, and if possible, can even take pride in, will improve the outcome.

Also, if like Alphaviolet, people in the group equate “follower” with “unquestioning”, then using some other word would be good if you want your people to think instead of just acting blindly on your words.

But my belief in the power of words is wider-reaching than any of these examples.

Words are magic.

Words affect our feelings and thoughts, and our logical understanding of things, and these in turn affect and direct our actions.