Articles / Leadership vs Followership: The Symbiotic Relationship That Drives Success
Leadership Theories & ModelsExplore the relationship between leadership and followership. Learn why effective followers are essential for organisational success and leader effectiveness.
Written by Laura Bouttell • Tue 30th December 2025
Leadership and followership represent two sides of the same coin—not opposing forces but interdependent roles that together determine organisational success. It is true that an organisation is only as good as its leaders. It is also only as good as its followers. Understanding this symbiotic relationship transforms how we think about influence, development, and organisational performance.
Consider a telling asymmetry: whilst leadership receives enormous attention in business literature and development programmes, followership gets only a small fraction of the airtime. Yet organisations and projects succeed or fail partly on the basis of how well their leaders lead, but partly also on how well their followers follow. The consequences of ignoring followership include poor work ethic, bad morale, distraction from goals, unsatisfied customers, lost opportunities, and weak competitiveness.
The Chinese philosophical concepts of Yin and Yang offer an apt metaphor: leadership and followership represent duality yet harmonious relationship. Neither can exist without the other. Future leaders come from the pool of individuals currently serving as followers. And the most effective leaders know that leadership often means knowing when to follow.
Leadership and followership describe distinct but complementary organisational roles. Understanding each illuminates how they work together.
Leadership involves setting direction, inspiring others toward shared objectives, and taking responsibility for outcomes. Leaders:
Leadership focuses on taking charge of solutions and guiding others toward desired outcomes.
Followership involves supporting leaders, executing plans, and contributing expertise toward shared goals. Effective followers:
Followership focuses on supporting and enacting solutions whilst contributing independent thinking and engaged participation.
| Dimension | Leadership | Followership |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Function | Setting direction | Supporting execution |
| Decision Role | Makes key decisions | Informs and implements |
| Visibility | Often prominent | Often less visible |
| Accountability | Ultimate responsibility | Shared responsibility |
| Value Recognition | Heavily emphasised | Often undervalued |
Because followership is greatly undervalued in society and business, too little attention is placed on it—to the detriment of organisational performance. Several factors explain followership's importance.
In any organisation, followers vastly outnumber leaders. The collective effort, commitment, and capability of followers determines whether leadership vision becomes reality. Brilliant strategy poorly executed by disengaged followers fails; good strategy excellently executed by committed followers succeeds.
Leadership sets direction; followership delivers results. Without effective followership:
Effective followers provide crucial feedback that improves leadership decisions. They see realities leaders miss, understand impacts leaders don't experience, and possess expertise leaders lack. Without this input, leaders operate with incomplete information.
Future leaders emerge from today's followers. Organisations that neglect followership development limit their leadership pipelines. Those who learn to follow well often lead best—understanding both perspectives enriches leadership capability.
Robert Kelley's seminal research identified five followership styles based on two dimensions: independent critical thinking versus dependent uncritical thinking, and active versus passive behaviour.
Exemplary Followers Exemplary followers think for themselves and are willing to challenge leaders by providing alternative solutions when they disagree. They proactively support organisational goals and leader decisions that align with their beliefs. Kelley called this group "The Stars" and maintained that exemplary followers make the difference in moving organisations toward success.
Conformist Followers Conformist followers are highly active but dependent, uncritical thinkers. Kelley referred to them as "yes people"—very active doers who unquestioningly follow leader directions without independent assessment.
Passive Followers Passive followers neither engage their thinking nor take concrete action. Kelley called this group "The Sheep." They show no initiative nor accept responsibility—often the result of micromanagers or negative, over-controlling cultures.
Alienated Followers Alienated followers think critically but have become disengaged. They often criticise from the sidelines, having grown bitter from being passed over or staying too long in one position. They've seen "too much" and feel powerless.
Pragmatist Followers Pragmatist followers can shift between different styles to suit each situation. They function as early warning systems when organisational culture starts changing for the worse.
| Followership Type | Critical Thinking | Active Engagement | Organisational Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exemplary | High | High | Most positive |
| Conformist | Low | High | Execution without challenge |
| Passive | Low | Low | Most negative |
| Alienated | High | Low | Critical but disengaged |
| Pragmatist | Variable | Variable | Situationally adaptive |
Interestingly, 85-90% of people place themselves in the exemplary follower category when self-assessing. This clearly isn't realistic—suggesting that followership capability, like leadership, requires honest self-assessment and deliberate development.
Leadership and followership exist in dynamic interaction, each shaping the other in ways that determine organisational outcomes.
Leadership and followership are closely intertwined. Effective followers can shape productive leadership behaviour just as effective leaders develop employees into good followers. This bidirectional influence means:
Both leadership and followership are critical for the success of any team or organisation. A team cannot function effectively without the strategic direction provided by leadership and the support and execution provided by followers.
What Leaders Need From Followers:
What Followers Need From Leaders:
Weak leadership and weak followership are two sides of the same coin, and the consequence is always the same: organisational confusion and poor performance. Failures manifest as:
Yes—and the most effective organisational contributors typically fulfil both roles, often simultaneously.
Most people in organisations are neither pure leaders nor pure followers. A middle manager leads their team whilst following senior leadership. A project team member might lead in their expertise area whilst following in others. Individual contributors often exercise informal leadership regardless of formal position.
Effective leadership sometimes involves following:
Effective followership sometimes involves leading:
Future leaders emerge from follower roles. The transition requires:
Effective followership involves more than simply doing what you're told. Research identifies specific characteristics that distinguish excellent followers.
Effective followership appears when individuals are proactively engaged with duties and meaningfully contribute through independent, critical thinking. Key characteristics include:
Good, skilled followers are self-reliant, active participants who push forward ideas in support of a vision or in service to a cause. This includes the courage to:
Exemplary followers share the same goal as the leader and are committed to succeeding in reaching that goal—creating a shared sense of responsibility. This goes beyond compliance to genuine ownership of outcomes.
Given followership's importance yet neglect, deliberate development approaches can significantly improve organisational performance.
The first step is acknowledging that followership matters. Organisations should:
Invest in building follower capabilities:
Organisational culture shapes followership quality:
| Culture Element | Followership Impact |
|---|---|
| Psychological safety | Enables honest feedback |
| Autonomy | Allows initiative |
| Recognition | Reinforces contribution |
| Development | Builds capability |
| Trust | Enables constructive challenge |
Passive or alienated followership often results from organisational cultures that punish initiative or honest feedback. Changing followership requires changing the conditions that shaped current patterns.
Contemporary organisational models increasingly emphasise shared leadership—distributed influence rather than concentrated authority. Followership plays a crucial role.
Traditional models assumed leaders led and followers followed in clearly separated roles. Shared leadership models recognise that leadership functions can be distributed, with different individuals leading in different domains or moments.
Research demonstrates that followership serves as a key ingredient for shared leadership and reducing team conflict. When team members can follow effectively:
Effective followers balance personal advancement with collective contribution. They get ahead while getting along—contributing to shared success whilst developing their own capabilities. This balance enables shared leadership to function.
Leadership involves setting direction, inspiring others, and taking responsibility for outcomes—focusing on taking charge of solutions. Followership involves supporting leaders, executing plans, and contributing expertise—focusing on supporting and enacting solutions. Both roles are essential: leadership sets direction whilst followership delivers results. The most effective organisations develop capability in both.
Followership receives far less attention despite its importance because Western cultures particularly value individual achievement and prominence. Leaders are visible and credited; followers often remain invisible despite enabling success. Additionally, "follower" carries negative connotations suggesting passivity or subordination, when effective followership actually requires significant capability and initiative.
Robert Kelley identified five followership types based on critical thinking and active engagement: Exemplary followers (high thinking, high engagement), Conformist followers (low thinking, high engagement), Passive followers (low thinking, low engagement), Alienated followers (high thinking, low engagement), and Pragmatist followers (variable, situationally adaptive). Exemplary followers contribute most positively to organisational success.
Yes—most people in organisations fulfil both roles, often simultaneously. A manager leads their team whilst following senior leadership. Effective leadership sometimes means following greater expertise or supporting decisions you didn't make. Effective followership sometimes means taking initiative or exercising informal influence. The best contributors move fluidly between roles as context requires.
Effective followership involves self-management, commitment to organisational success, competence in relevant areas, courage to challenge when necessary, and independent critical thinking. Effective followers don't blindly comply—they engage thoughtfully, contribute expertise, provide honest feedback, and share genuine responsibility for outcomes. They're active participants rather than passive recipients of direction.
Leadership and followership are interdependent. Effective followers provide honest feedback that improves leadership decisions, execute strategy with commitment, offer expertise leaders lack, and share responsibility for outcomes. Poor followership undermines leadership through passive compliance, withheld feedback, minimal execution, and blame rather than shared accountability.
Organisations improve followership by first recognising its value and discussing it explicitly. They should develop followership capabilities (critical thinking, constructive challenge, initiative, execution excellence), create cultures that enable good followership through psychological safety and appropriate autonomy, and recognise excellent followership alongside excellent leadership. Changing followership often requires changing the conditions that shaped current patterns.
Leadership versus followership presents a false dichotomy. The real question isn't which matters more but how both can be developed to work together effectively. Organisations succeed through the partnership between those who set direction and those who make that direction real.
The success of an organisation may depend more on followers, and even a harmonious relationship between leaders and followers, than on leaders alone. This insight challenges hero-worship approaches to leadership development whilst elevating the importance of followership capability.
For individuals, the implications are clear: develop both capabilities. Learn to follow well—with engagement, critical thinking, and commitment—because excellent followership contributes enormously to organisational success and prepares you for leadership. Learn to lead well—with vision, support, and genuine engagement with followers—because leadership without effective followership accomplishes nothing.
The organisations that thrive recognise that leadership and followership aren't opposing forces but complementary roles. Like Yin and Yang, each requires the other. The goal isn't choosing between them but developing excellence in both—creating the harmonious relationship that enables genuine organisational success.