How Followership Leads to Leadership

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[Music]

[Applause]

there’s a saying which goes

if you think you’re leading and you

turn around and look behind you and

nobody’s following you

well folks you’re just going for a walk

so we tend to pay a lot of attention to

leadership and i’d like to

rather than talk about leadership this

afternoon i’d like to talk about

what i call followership

to think about what followership is

and why it’s important right now why the

world needs great followers

some of the impact that followership can

have

some of the characteristics of great

followers and finally i’d like to leave

you with a couple of questions

to go away with as we close this

afternoon

so here’s the first question can you

think of a great follower

what are they like well

while you’re pondering on that question

let me take you back to 1953 now i know

most of us were never

never alive or weren’t alive in 1953

but it was a big year it was a big year

for new zealand

it was a huge year in the field of

mountaineering

it was actually the year that queen

elizabeth ii was ground as well

so 1953 if you think back

was a pivotal year

now i’m going to ask you another

question has anybody heard of john hunt

great okay just a few has anybody not

heard of sir edmund hillary

it’s always a relief when no hands go up

there

so the interesting thing was that as you

probably remember 1953 was the year that

cerebrum and hillary and tenzing norgay

sherpa

summitted mount everest so for the first

time

an expedition had put two people on top

of mount everest

and more importantly had come back

safely and this was huge news around the

world

um celebrated in new zealand celebrated

in the uk because it was

it was actually a british expedition uh

but the interesting thing was

most people kind of thought ed hillary

was the leader of the expedition he was

the guy who went to the summit

but that wasn’t the case john hunt the

guy that so few of us have heard of

was actually the leader of that

expedition

and the thing that interests me about

him i met him once it was a great

privilege

is that he chose rather than taking an

out the front leadership role where he

put himself in the limelight

and drew plaudits and accolades

for leading the expedition that put the

first people on the top of mount everest

he didn’t do that at all he chose to be

a follower

he chose to enable those people to get

to the top

of the mountain and he demonstrated what

i believe is one of the fundamental

prerequisites of followership and that

is

great humility

so i’ve been working with leaders

for probably 30 years now young people

on expeditions

senior leaders in boardrooms all sorts

of organizations around the world and

what’s

interesting to me

is that leaders may be the catalyst they

may be the architects of change

they may be the visionaries but you know

what it’s

followers who get things done it’s

followers

who make things happen so i’d like you

to come on a short journey with me a

journey of exploration if you like

as i started to explore this idea of

followership

which has intrigued me more and more

over time

so i’m going to go back to when i was 11

years old

i was at boarding school in england and

i was a chorister i was a cathedral

chorister

and it was a pretty privileged position

to be in i’ve got a choral scholarship

to winchester cathedral so one of the

largest most prestigious cathedrals in

europe

and this was significant to me because

my dad had also been a chorister

different cathedral

he’d also been headcorrester at a place

called litchfield cathedral

so i was pretty pleased i was going to

follow in dad’s footsteps

and like most kids with their dads i

thought dad was pretty cool

i thought dad was particularly cool

because not only had he been a head

correster

he was also a concert and opera singer

now he was really good

he sang alongside the likes of kirita

kanoa

the royal festival hall in the albert

hall so you know he was a big cheese in

the field of opera

and classical music and i wanted to be

just like him

so i sort of thought it was my

birthright if you like

to be head choruser at winchester

because hey dad had been headquartered

let’s feel it surely it’s in the genes

it’s just in the dna it’s going to

happen

so when the time came for the new head

correstor to be appointed

i waited expectantly

and then what i didn’t expect happened

so the dean and the head of music and

the headmaster and the committee

deciding on the new headquarries to got

their heads together

the announcement was made and hey guess

what i wasn’t head corister

i wasn’t even deputy head correster i

was the third chorister now

not like an olympic podium where you

have one two and three and the choir

there wasn’t a third place so basically

i was nothing i was out there

so an eleven-year-old privileged kid

probably doesn’t behave terribly well

and throws his teddys out of the cot

which is exactly what i did so i sulked

and i moaned and i looked for anybody

who’d listened to me

and i would complain and get angry and

grumpy and pout and do all those sorts

of things

until one morning i woke up and i

realized you know was i really going to

carry on doing this for the rest of the

time that i was in this wonderful choir

and i realized i had a choice i had a

choice

that i could be bitter

or i could be better

and happily i made the choice to be

better

so why is this relevant to followership

well it’s relevant because

when i look back on that i realized that

i had to make

the choice to be better around doing

three things

and that was to be faithful to be

focused

and to be fearless let me explain what i

mean

so the headquarter and deputy hair

correspond were appointed

i had to fall into line i had to accept

that these guys were the right people

for the job not me

they had been chosen by people older and

much wiser than me so i had to be

faithful to that decision

i had to decide i was going to fall in

line and do what needed to be done

second point i had to be focused

i had to be focused on as the athletes

say controlling the controllables

doing everything i could to make the

best music i could within this amazing

choir

to enable our leaders to do the job that

they were doing

and the final thing i had to be fearless

you might think what’s fearless got to

do with it well

here’s the thing at 11 years old i kind

of thought this is a disaster this is

the end of my wonderful career

as a future global international opera

star

of course it wasn’t it’s just a fork in

the road

so i had to abandon the fear that i

wasn’t going to be in the limelight like

john hunt i had to exercise humility

just go it’s okay i can do other things

now in

exercising those three characteristics

which i believe are fundamental

to followership what i did realize

i helped to do i was part of building a

choir that became

one of the most prominent and successful

cathedral choirs in europe

and i’m very proud

so moving on

i want to talk about what i’ve

discovered over time

which is the impact the importance of

followership

right now and there are three reasons

i’ve explored which i find fascinating

and quite powerful

so i’d like to share them with you

the first reason comes from the

situation that we find ourselves

in here and now in new zealand and

around the world yes it’s cobit

the word that we’re all sick of hearing

but i find it very interesting that in

new zealand think back to the 26th of

march

that’s when we all went into lockdown

nationally

and the government said to us we’re

going to go

hard and we’re going to go early

remember those words

and we were called a team of 5 million

and we’re still called a team of five

million

but the thing that interests me is yes

we’ve got a second wave of it now yes we

haven’t beaten it

but i am so proud to be here in new

zealand

having smashed that first wave yes we’re

still fighting it

but i believe that by choosing to get

behind our leaders whether or not we

agree with their political views or not

doesn’t matter

we chose to fall in behind to help

ourselves to help each other

and for me to demonstrate followership

now hey if that’s not having an

impact i don’t know what is

my next point comes from the world of

the demographic

i have three millennial kids

and i remember

we as parents in my generation for

whatever reason it was maybe because of

our parenting

but we tended to say to our kids you

could be anything you want to be

you can do what you want to do reach for

the stars the world’s your oyster just

rabbit and i’ll probably do the same

thing now

but with one significant difference

now you’ll forgive the generalization

but i do believe

from working with a lot of millennials

and leaders and managers and millennials

in organizations

there is a frustration out there a

frustration that

in many cases our millennial population

which represents well over half of the

workforce globally now

are frustrated frustrated because they

can’t get on

fast enough they reach these glass

ceilings

and the fascinating thing to me is that

i think we dealt with a bum card

i think as the generation before them we

forgot to tell them that yes by all

means reach for the stars

but don’t forget you’ve got to learn to

follow first before you ascend to those

heights of leadership

that you aspire to in fact

this is not an old principle by any

means two and a half thousand years ago

aristotle said he said he who cannot be

a great follower

cannot be a great leader

so the third reason this now delves into

the area of mental health

and as we know sadly in new zealand it’s

something we’re really wrestling with

we’re wrestling with increased cases of

depression globally it’s a

it’s another form of pandemic if you

like

but the fascinating thing for me is that

when i talk to health professionals when

i talk to psychologists that i’ve worked

with

they seem to agree on one thing

and that is that if you have something

to follow

something that’s bigger than you are

something that gives you a sense of

identity a sense of purpose

a sense of value that does two things

the first is and it has been proven

it can really help you from declining

into that dreadful state of depression

that so many people experience these

days

and the second thing is if you succumb

to a mental illness particularly

depression

it can be one of the things that helps

you on the road to recovery

so i took these kind of

realizations took them back into the

world of working as an executive coach

and i’ve worked with again leaders at

all sorts of levels

lots of different companies lots of

different countries and

one day i sort of stepped back and i

thought you know

there are real themes that come out of

so many of the conversations that i have

with

coaching conversations with executives

and they’re talking to me about not so

much

how do i get the best out of my team but

it’s more about

well i’m really struggling with the

relationship i have with my boss my

leader whatever it may be

how do i get the best out of them so

when i stopped back and i sort of

thought about it i thought well

actually these conversations aren’t so

much about leadership that was the that

was the brief if you like

leadership coaching it was actually more

about

helping them to understand what it was

to be the best follower they could be

in other words what could they do to

help create the conditions

for their leaders to do a great job

i’ve always said that leaders roles is

to

create the conditions for their people

to do a great job but

i’ve begun to realize that it’s just the

same the other way around

so let me finish up with one final story

and we’re going to fast forward now from

the age of 11 to the age of 21.

i was in the british army and i was

based in germany

quite dull to be honest not much

happened there at the time

so we were pretty excited when we got

off our chance to go to northern ireland

our first operational tour

and we were tasked with guarding the

high security

h-blocks in the maze prison so that

sounded pretty exciting

actually again it wasn’t terribly

exciting it was

kind of like glorified century duty

but when we got the chance a couple of

um

groups of bricks as we called them of

soldiers

to go out to a slightly troubled area

called logan

on an armored patrol we thought this was

pretty exciting

so myself and a group of the guys headed

out in two armored land rovers on patrol

vehicle patrol and we’ve been out of the

gates for maybe 10 minutes when the

radio burst to life

and the voice on the radio said you need

to go to this location now as fast as

you can

there’s an incident now we didn’t know

what an incident was

but we raced off there with excitement

thinking this could be the moment this

could be the moment where we really make

a difference we do something significant

we got there and i remember jumping out

of the land rover and there were two

policemen standing leaning against the

lamp post

they looked pretty laid back but it

transpired they weren’t very laid back

at all

and i went up and i said okay we’re here

and i’ll do my best

northern irish accent right now so the

conversation went something like this

you took your time we’ve got a problem

it’s over there there’s a bomb

so well i won’t say what i really said

but the fact was

this was it this was the moment we’d all

been waiting for the moment to shine

to show all our training and then

something extraordinary happened

i froze i just

as the athletes again would say i choked

and i stopped thinking and i just just

didn’t know what to do it’s like i was

paralyzed

and it felt like oh i don’t know it felt

like minutes but it was probably only i

don’t know

15 30 seconds but i remember people just

looking at me and

staring blankly kind of thinking what’s

the matter with him

and then very quietly i felt a jab in my

ribs and my number two

corporal steve mead i will never forget

his name

just quietly said to me he said come on

sir

you’ve got this you know what to do so

come on let’s get on and do it

now the good news is that at that moment

everything sort of came back i

remembered what to do we put in a cordon

we withdrew the

residence of the area back to a safe

distance we called in the bomb disposal

guys

they took the bomb away they detonated

it at a safe distance it was a bomb it

went off it made a big bang

but everybody was safe we went back to

the mess we had some beers

and we all celebrated but that’s not the

point

the point was what corporal mead did

that day

and that is for me one of the

loveliest examples of followership that

i remember

he could have usurped me he could have

shot me out of the way and said get out

of the way

you know you’re a 21 year old wet behind

the ears i’m 30 and i’ve been

doing this stuff for years he didn’t do

that he was faithful

he enabled me to get back on the horse

and do what i needed to do

he was focused too what he did was

he was absolutely aware of the fact that

he needed to get me

back doing what i needed to do in order

to help

us all through the situation so he was

focused on getting the job done

he wasn’t bothered about plaudits or

accolades

or anything like that and he was

fearless in another way yes he was

physically fearless it was a dangerous

situation but what was

interesting was that

he wasn’t worried about coming up and

challenging me now in the military and

that sort of time

it normally didn’t challenge or call out

your senior officer just wasn’t really

the done thing

but he wasn’t bothered about that he

came and he

fronted up to me and he told me what i

needed to do

and i salute him for that and in that

way he was fearless and my point is this

if you’re going to be faithful focused

and fearless being fearless as a great

follower

is not just about not worrying about

being in the limelight

it’s actually also about being not

afraid to challenge your leaders if you

think something’s wrong

i go back to the phrase i mentioned

earlier on our job as great followers

is to create the conditions for our

leaders to do a wonderful job

so said i was going to leave you with

three questions

and the questions are these so

if you ask yourself

what can we do now

to be or to grow

great followers

second question what is it

or how is it that we measure up when we

look at those

characteristics of great followers

to what extent can you look in the

mirror and say

i think i’m faithful think i’m focused

i think i’m fearless all wrapped up

in a beautiful bundle of humility

and the third question is when things

don’t go our way

are you going to make the choice to be

bitter or are you going to make the

choice to be better

so to wrap up

if leadership is the spark

followership is the flame

and i believe we can do every bit as

much good in this world right now

by being great followers as we can

by being great leaders

and i further believe that it’s the

great followers of today

who are going to become the great

leaders of tomorrow

thank you

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