Discussion: Followship

Do you think of yourself as a leader, a follower, or some of both? Why?
Leading is *work* that I don't always want to do, but, I have found myself in that position more than once.

What do you consider the personal qualities of a good follower?
-- Thoughtfulness, commitment

What are some of the skills of a good follower?
-- The ability to listen, the ability to take direction well are very useful. Most importantly? The willingness to *question*. This does *not* mean arguing at every opportunity. It does mean thinking about what's going on.

Can followship be taught or learned, or is it innate?
I believe this is a spectrum, and, I believe it can be learned. If you select a random group of people and give them a task to complete, without fail, a leader will emerge. Whether the person is the most opinionated, most confident, or just most organized, it will happen.
Since many of the qualities that make a good follower also make for a good leader or just a cooperative individual, I believe they can be learned. Some will just take to them more readily than others.

Do followers deserve respect? Why or why not?
Of course they deserve respect. I think there's occasionally frustration when people are what I would consider *blind* followers. That doesn't mean that following is bad. Leadership is stressful and not everyone *wants* to be a leader. Likewise, not everyone *can* be a leader. We'd never get anything done.

How does the wider Pagan community view followers?
I'm pretty outside the wider Pagan community at this point. However, most people find it uncomfortable to step outside of our comfort zones. People who decide to become Pagans are often people who rail against being told to be a follower. Hense the "herding cats" problem. (Using the term "problem" very loosely.)

What does it mean for a follower to bestow their service on a leader?
You raise an interesting question that I have not thought through before. I'll think on this one more and get back to you.

I tend to see leadership as having an implicit contract. The difficult part is that people can find themselves leading without having consciously volunteered for it.

So... if a follower "bestows" their service on a leader, to me there's an inherent contract of trust. The leader has the additional hands to accomplish a goal while the follower trusts the leader to be honest in his/her goals, aims and intentions. This is part of the reason that violations of that kind of trust are (and should be) taken so seriously.

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.)

“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.

I think of myself as a leader in training really, but then again, I'm a leo. I'm not actively pursuing any degree work with my coven, as I'm pregnant, but I'm still paying attention and studying with the "outer court" stuff, and trying to do what I can to help out. I suppose that makes me a follower, at the moment.


Sure followers deserve respect, when typically 80% of the work is done by 10% of the group, any help should be respected and appreciated. And then there are the Leos who would wither and die without being appreciated and acknowledged, you wouldn't want to starve the Leos would you?

I have gotten some flack from solitaries at times. When I was big into Witchschool some solitaries felt that any kind of training was completely unnecessary. They just didn't see the point of taking online correspondence classes. Now that I'm in a RL coven with a RL trad, some people's views range between "she sold out" to "she joined a cult".

When you do consider how independent most NeoPagans are, I feel it's the ultimate complement for anyone in the Pagan community to serve a leader or community. I wouldn't say I serve my HP and HPS, I would say I serve the coven and/or the trad, not a particular leader.

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

I am a great follower - if the leader is good. If the leader is weak or unfocused, I tend to chafe and want to take over, because I can't stand to see things fall apart. If the leader is strong, I'm an awesome asset.

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

I tend to think of followers in terms of a dog team. (Heh.) You've got a lead dog, but they aren't 'the leader' - the musher would be the leader. The lead dog is only the leader of the followers in my analogy, setting the tone for the group, inciting dissent if there is any, and making some of the minor decisions. The musher says where to go, the lead dog says how to get there. There are also less creative members that are just as important - the wheel dogs at the back of the line that are the strongest and hardest workers, but really are at their best when someone else is showing them exactly what to do.

What are some of the skills of a good follower?

For a cohesive group, you need several personalities - see above! But in general, you need questioning, accepting and commitment in appropriate measures.

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

Everything can be learned, imho, but some people have better starting tools.

Do followers deserve respect? Why or why not?

Absolutely. Leadership and followers rely on each other entirely... can't have one without the other, and if one is disfunctional, the other will collapse.

How does the wider Pagan community view followers?

-

What does it mean for a follower to bestow their service on a leader?

It's a statement of trust - that they believe in the leader to respect them, guide them and work for their overall best interests.

Do you think of yourself as a leader, a follower, or some of both? Why?
I am more of a leader than a follower. However, I don't like the responsibility, so I very rarely step up.

What do you consider the personal qualities of a good follower?
Being willing to follow. Putting a high priority in teamwork. I suck at it.

What are some of the skills of a good follower?
The ability to put one's own ego aside to serve the common good. Being a good team player.


Can followship be taught or learned, or is it innate? I think it is innate.

Do followers deserve respect? Why or why not? Of course. Everyone deserves respect! But, aside from that, it is the followers who do all the work. They hold the ultimate power.

How does the wider Pagan community view followers? Everyone wants to be the HP, very view are able to manage it.

What does it mean for a follower to bestow their service on a leader? It means that they are willing to do the work and be the backbone of the group. The leader is usually the one who owns the venue, the followers clean it up afterwards.

I tend to be a leader, often... So a good follower has two main qualities: loyalty, and agreement with the plan.

Of course, I'm talking more about professional relationships rather than paganism... But it's the arena I'm more knowledgeable about :D