Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Discussion: Followship

Today's installment of "How to Herd Cats: Essays on Pagan Leadership" covers the opposite side of the coin: "Followship." Almost all the literature about power dynamics is focused on leadership. People often forget that good leaders need good followers. So let's explore that...

Do you think of yourself as a leader, a follower, or some of both? Why?

What do you consider the personal qualities of a good follower?

What are some of the skills of a good follower?

Can followship be taught or learned, or is it innate?

Do followers deserve respect? Why or why not?

How does the wider Pagan community view followers?

What does it mean for a follower to bestow their service on a leader?
Tags: daily spell, paganism
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  • 23 comments
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ysabetwordsmith

ysabetwordsmith

May 6 2008, 05:10:09 UTC 13 years ago

You've raised some excellent points here. Yes, a leader in training can be a follower -- indeed, it's tremendously helpful for a leader to have good followship skills too. Nobody is good at everything, so being able to swap off and follow someone else's directions for a particular project is a real asset. That background also helps leaders understand and appreciate their followers.

I'm also intrigued by the idea of following/serving a coven or other group instead of an individual leader. I'll have to jot down that idea for further exploration. What you consider some of the differences between serving an individual leader and serving a group? How did you come to that arrangement?
morningdove3202

morningdove3202

May 7 2008, 09:12:16 UTC 13 years ago

I would say that our leaders, the HPs HPS and even degreed people who aren't in an official leadership role (but are part of that 10% who do 80% of the work) really don't want us followers to view it as following a given leader. The leaders themselves are not about ego trips, they are about building communities. Also, our leadership changes over time, when a given HP or HPS starts a coven, they do so knowing that it will be handed down to coven members that they have trained so that the most experienced HP/HPS can "birth" new covens. So that "cult of personality" that can happen, doesn't so much, because when that coven is ready, the leaders move on.

What's the difference?
If I bring a snack to share to a meeting, I don't just bring it for Jim, my HP, I share it with everyone. When I decorate the ritual space, I'm doing that for everyone. Our coven has been given the responsibility of caring for our Great Circle, which needed a lot of landscaping work when we formed, so we planned work days to remove a few small trees and expand the circle back to it's original size, so we do that not only for our coven, but for the entire trad and the greater pagan community, because that space is also used for trad wide events and public events. It also builds positive connections between other covens because we invite anyone from any of the covens to help, so it's quite bonding and a social event as well.

Bottom line, leaders come and go, but well established communities are what keeps people coming back for more.

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