Motivation and Leadership

1. Virtually everyone is a follower at some point

in his or her life.
2. There are times when situational demands
require that individuals in formal
followership roles step into leadership roles.
3. Vital role followers play in societal change
and organisational performance.
 Why People choose to become
followers?
• People follow because the benefits of doing so
outweigh the costs of going it alone or fighting to
become the leader of a group.
• Social Psychology tells that identification with leaders
and trust are two other reasons why people choose
to follow.
TRUST is a common factor in hypothesis of cost-
benefit analysis, compliance with authority or
willing identification with leaders.
 Followership Models
Intended to provide leaders with additional
insight into what motivates followers and how
to improve individual and team performance.
 Potter and Rosenbach Followship
Model
Followers inputs are vital to team performance
as they are close to problem.
Two Dimensions (Dimensions are Independent ):
Performance initiative (extent to which an individual follower can
do his or her job, works effectively with other members of the team, embraces
change and views himself or herself as an important asset in team performance.)

Relationship Initiative (Degree to which followers act to improve

their working relationships with their leaders.)
• Politician can be some delight in playing game and
other tend to be manipulative
• Partners are much more likely to raise uncomfortable
issues and hold leaders accountable for decisions.
• Subordinates tend to remain with organizations for
long periods stay out of trouble and do not make
waves.
• Contributors rarely seek out their leaders’ perspectives,
generally wait for direction and work best in jobs
where they can be left alone to do their thing.
• Situation including organsational culture,
demands of the position, available resources,
other team members and the leaders plays an
important role in determining followership types.
• All the four types of followers can play valuable
roles in the organization.
• Model helps the leaders understand their own
followership type, the different kinds of followers
what kind of followers they currently have and
what they can do to create effective leadership.
 Drawbacks
• Puts onus of effective followership on
followers.
• Role that ineffective leadership plays is not
taken into account.
 Curphy Followership Model
Used to assess current followership type.
Two Independent Dimensions: Critical Thinking
(follower's ability to challenge the status quo, ask goo
questions, detect problems and develop solutions).
Engagement (level of effort people put forth
at work).
• Self-Starters are highlighting rewarding but
challenging team members and leaders need to
bring their best game to work if they want to
successfully manage these followers.
• Organizations consisting of high percentages of
brown-nosers are highly dependent on their
leaders to be successful.
• Slackers have lot of motivation but it is directed
toward activity unrelated to work.
• Critizers are most dangerous of the four types.
• Model help leaders assess follower types and
determine the best ways to motivate direct reports.
• Followership types are not static but change according
to situation.
• It is not unusual for followers to start careers or new
jobs as brown-nosers.
• Teams and organizations populated with criticizers and
slackers need to take a hard look at their leadership.
• Leaders’ own followership type affects how they lead
others.