Cultivating creative followers with a shared leadership model
Abstract
Good leaders spend time cultivating good followership — designing work assignments and training for volunteers that instill motivation to the mission and loyalty to the team. According to Susan Ellis, author of "Cultivate Followership," encouraging creative followership is possible with a shared leadership model and is far more motivating and engaging than top-down hierarchy. Adapted from "Susan's Tip of the Month," in the Energize Volunteer Management Web Update, January 2005.
Issue
How come leaders don't spend more time cultivating good "followership"?
Action
According to Susan Ellis, encouraging creative followership is possible with a shared leadership paradigm, and is far more motivating than top-down hierarchy. Steps to take for creating this climate within an organization include:
Write job descriptions for what it means to be a member of the team, committee or board. It's common to write job descriptions for team leaders, committee chairpeople, board officers, and other positions of "rank." If you stop there, however, you are sending the clear message that the leaders work and the "ordinary" member waits to be told what to do. So make sure that you write job descriptions for what it means to be a member of the team, committee, or board. In fact, that's where you should start. First define what every participant in this effort needs to do; then add the additional tasks of the needed officers.
Whenever possible, rotate the chair position so that each member gets a chance to convene a meeting and no one person is seen as "in charge." Further, eliminate the chair position altogether by forming smaller teams — even twos and threes — that can work cooperatively without the need to designate power, just a point person for communication.
Train everyone to take action and not wait for someone else to make requests. This can be done for any volunteer in any position. Be clear when and how to take initiative or submit recommendations. It's okay to put limits on this, too, but whenever you find yourself training about the "don'ts," make sure you also mention a few important "do's."
Publicize the expectations of membership (for all-volunteer associations) as well as the benefits. Look at most organization's membership brochures and you'll be struck by all the "reasons to join" — what a member gets. When and where does a member learn what she or he is expected to give, beyond dues? Does a small group of long-time people determine projects for the year and then try to recruit members to "help"? Do members even know how they might participate in the planning process as well as in the implementation?
Assess whether you have a culture of top-down leadership or true member participation. For an agency volunteer program, the assessment question is: Does the volunteer program manager do all the planning and then recruit volunteers to do things? When and how do current volunteers have the chance to participate in running what is, after all, their program?
Context
In "Creative Fellowship: The Time has Come to Focus our Attention Where it Really Belongs," (Voluntary Action Leadership, Spring 1989) Marilyn MacKenzie outlined three attributes of creative followers:- Participates wholeheartedly in all phases of the enterprise
- Displays a willingness to listen to reason and to open oneself to new possibilities
- Commits to working with the group to develop solutions, plans, and programs that result from group effort
Citation
Ellis, Susan J. Susan's Tip of the Month: "Cultivate Followership." Energize Volunteer Management Web Update. [e-mail] 1 January 2005 [cited January 31, 2005].
Energize is an international training, consulting, and publishing firm specializing in volunteerism. The website includes a compilation of articles and excerpts, listing of conferences/classes, online bookstore, job bank, and many other services.
Outcome
Creative followers are supported to take initiative, even leadership, because managers have demonstrated by their actions that good ideas can come from any source and that decisions will be made openly and collectively. Because this kind of culture is not the norm in organizations, it takes conscious attention to train leaders and followers.
Posted On
January 30, 2005For More Information
Resources
MacKenzie, Marilyn and Gail Moore. The Volunteer Development Toolbox: Tools and Techniques to Enhance Volunteer and Staff Effectiveness. Darien, IL: Heritage Arts Publishing, 1993.
Related Practices
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