LEADERSHIP AND FOLLOWERSHIP

DISCUSSION CONTENTS

Leadership and Followership as a subject, and a relationship

Definitions and awareness Basic Types and Team operation Active Team development in Robotics Teams

People describe leadership and followership with many different definitions and descriptions….

Recommendation:

Be open-minded and flexible when discussing leadership and followership- try to understand other’s views and perspectives on this subject !

LEADERS AND FOLLOWERS TOGETHER FORM TEAMS

Leadership and Followership are slightly different, equally important functions

They cannot exist without each other !

WHAT ARE YOUR INITIAL THOUGHTS?

What is leadership? What is followership?

OTHER’S DEFINITIONS

Leadership is that quality and skills of a person which influences other people to model their behavior, accept ideas or information, and accept suggestions and direction for actions. Leadership can be either good or bad, in that it may result in either desirable or undesirable consequences. Leadership may be formalized or may be informal.

Followership involves acceptance of the leader role and actions, and some degree of support to the leader through behavior or public expression.

Followership also involves evaluation of the leader, their actions, their behavior, and the directions or ideas that they propose or promote; the follower judges whether these attributes are acceptable to their personal interests or not.

A basic difference between Leaders and Followers is that the Leader is generally the initiator, moderator, and coordinator of communication and group information.

The authoritarian leader is the sole source of information, ideas, decision, and direction

Shared leadership makes extensive use of follower information, ideas, group decisions, and consensus direction. The Leadership role is key in providing group discipline.

Leadership Development in FLL and FIRST Teams 1

Coaching Method:

Initially, observe natural team behaviors:

Are there “natural”, accepted leaders present

Are there strong followers present?

Are the leaders promoting good team operation, or are they inhibiting or suppressing team members ideas and contributions. (Authoritarian)

Leadership Development in FLL and FIRST Teams 2

Addressing existing leadership

Coaching Method Choices:

-Coach individuals to promote good leadership or followership behavior

-Intervene and model desired behavior

-Institute group procedures to address personal conflicts

-Rotate or assign different leadership roles

-Others?

Leadership Development in FLL and FIRST Teams 3

Developing new leadership

Coaching Method Choices:

-Direct assignment with coaching on details

-Staged development with increasing responsibilities and tasks

-Group nomination and followup evaluation

-Others?

Followership Development in FLL and FIRST Teams Low engagement or contribution

Coaching Method Choices:

-Address cause of low engagement

-Encourage/build assertiveness

-Formalize and measure participation

-Build habit and comfort by periodically inviting response

What are typical problems, how do you currently improve?