Function: Senior talent

Understanding the value of followership

The business world is obsessed with leadership. Google “leadership” and you’ll get many thousands of results. But what about those who are being led? What about the followers? Knowing how to follow is equally important but if you search for “followership” online there is much less to find.

No one goes to Harvard to learn how to follow, yet it is the other side of the leadership coin. If we apply this notion to business, while leadership may be the behaviour in focus it is followership that dominates most of our working lives and is the crucial secret skill of success.

Understanding the skills needed to follow well are important in their own right and also make us better leaders. Knowledge of effective followership enables leaders to fulfil their responsibilities effectively, demonstrating empathy, knowing what motivates others and communicating well.

What is followership and why is it important?

It’s useful to define what we mean by followership. In brief, it is the ability to take direction well, to align behind a programme or project, to be part of a team and to deliver on what is expected of you.

It is not just about behaviour but also mindset. It also enables followers to hold their leaders to account.

Characteristics of effective followership

Despite followership not receiving the same attention as leadership, the difference between effective and ineffective followership behaviours was codified as far back as 1988, in a seminal article in the Harvard Business Review by Robert Kelley.

In this piece, Kelley set out the difference between effective and ineffective followership behaviours in the following way:

• Ineffective followership behaviours

This often takes the form of team members sitting around waiting to be told what to do and being reluctant to take the initiative.

Going a step further, it could manifest as what Kelley calls “survivor” behaviour, which is when you’re perfectly capable and have a good brain but have chosen to switch yourself off to just get through the day and do the bare minimum.

Perhaps the worst of the ineffective behaviours is when you are angry and complaining vocally, not caring who knows how you feel. This behaviour can become subversive and start to sow dissent.


Effective behaviours, by contrast, include:

  • The ability to think for themselves
  • Take initiative within mutually understood boundaries without the need to be constantly seeking permission
  • Willingness to take a degree of risk
  • Ability to use their own judgement
  • Being comfortable putting their hand up and saying when they don’t know something
  • Being capable to operate independently
  • Hunger to expand their level of competence

That last point is important, because effective followers often strive to increase their competence – to stretch themselves, learn more and develop by asking for more challenging tasks, or for mentorship.

Indeed, it is the ability to switch roles, to change priorities, to offer support, that could be said to define effective followership. This is what people in high performing teams do – they’re typically able to switch between roles very easily.

How do we create a culture where effective followership behaviour thrives in a hybrid working world?

Leadership plays a key role in nurturing effective followership. If you create the conditions for effective followership to thrive, through your leadership, then it will thrive. If you create the conditions for survivorship, then those behaviours will thrive. It’s up to you what you create.

With the rise of new ways of working – hybrid working in particular – your leadership plays a more important role than ever. People have a choice about how hard they work. They have a choice about what they spend time on and what they prioritise.

Discretionary effort is ultimately what it’s all about. Your effective followers are really comfortable providing you discretionary effort. They’re also really comfortable turning around and telling you when they’re maxed out or in danger of burnout. You can trust them in this context, because they’ve got a good track record of being honest, trustworthy, reliable individuals who tell you the truth. If they say they’re maxed out, then the chances are, they’re maxed out.

Of course, if you care about your team member, you will be receptive to the signs of overwork and potential burnout. If you notice that they are working through weekends or sending emails at 5.30am and at 9.30pm, it’s time to talk to them about creating a better work-life balance. It’s time to see how you can support them.

In short, you need to care about your people. To support them. To listen to them. To respond when they come to you with challenges. Do this, and you will foster a relationship based on trust. They will repay in kind with increased productivity and discretionary effort.

Here we’ve gone full circle back to the importance of good leadership. You get the followership that your leadership style deserves: it doesn’t just happen. Remember the earlier point about the military: that good leaders serve their followers. As a leader, you are there to provide your people with everything they need to do the job for you, from equipment and tools to motivation and purpose: a reason for getting out of bed in the morning.

If you give all your people all the things they need to be brilliant, then you’ll get effective followership. Without this, no leader can succeed. With it, no leader can fail. 

How to balance confidence and humility

Confidence is a great strength in a leader when used appropriately. But we often celebrate its upsides while turning a blind eye to its drawbacks.

An appropriately confident leader is a great asset to their organisation and the people they lead. They tend to be open, assertive, reliable and honest.

However, we are all familiar with the notion that we can have too much of a good thing and most of us will have worked for someone who was all too sure of their ability.

Over-confident leaders often focus on their personal goals and achievements at the expense of their team or the wider organisation and blame others when something goes wrong.

Such leaders can also be closed off and hard to reach. After all, why be open to feedback when you already know everything there is to know?

This armoured and potentially arrogant way of being is a significant obstacle to good engagement and long-term success.

The strengths of the humble leader

By contrast, let’s consider the strengths of a humble leader, which include:

  • Listening
  • Teamwork
  • Soliciting feedback

Humble leaders encourage others to speak up and give their opinions, regardless of their position in the company. As Steve Jobs once said:

“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

Such leaders are also commonly associated with positive traits such as sincerity, modesty, truthfulness, fairness and authenticity.

With so many positive associations with humility, why are so many business leaders so reticent about being humble?

Perhaps it’s because we’re bombarded with stories of strong, charismatic leaders in the business press. Or we’re influenced by images of strong leadership in the media. Or we just don’t want to risk appearing to not know the answer, doubt ourselves or be vulnerable. Reframing what it means to be a leader is a helpful starting point in shifting this mindset.

All coins have two sides

But what are the drawbacks of excessive humility? If there is a shadow to confidence, what is the shadow of humility?

For ourselves, if our doubts inflate, we can undermine our confidence and feel like an imposter who doesn’t know enough to deserve the role. A common fear around this is the sense that we got where we are by luck and will get found out someday. This emotional state can lead to rumination and dwelling on mistakes and feedback in a self-critical way that undermines learning and risk appetite.

For the people we lead, we might not be there for them when they need us.In conclusion, as with most leadership traits, there is a balance to be struck between confidence and humility. Too much of a good thing doesn’t seem to work and the best leaders have learned how to avoid the shadows and demonstrate both confidence and humility positively and, paradoxically, often at the same time.

As author Jim Collins wrote in his book Good to Great, those chief executives who most often helped to transition their companies to outperform their competition exhibited two key traits:

  • Humility
  • A will to advance the cause of the whole organisation

The empirical evidence is that both humility and confidence are critical to success.

Challenge and support in the workplace

Did you ever have a teacher at school who influenced you? Maybe even changed your life?

When I reflect on conversations with the people I have trained, coached or just met along the way in my time as a leadership developer, I notice how often an inspirational teacher from school is fondly remembered.

In any performance environment, knowing when and how to challenge or support people is a vital leadership skill and I can think of few professions which know more about how to do this well than teaching.

For some of us it is natural to want to stay in our comfort zones. As we mature and grow, we learn how to be more comfortable with pushing ourselves. Being stretched and challenged is uncomfortable for all of us initially, a bit like yoga or weight training, but with practice we get better and it becomes a habit.

I spoke recently with Louise North, Principal of Framlingham College, for her perspective and she described that when she started her job, she noticed the school was doing an amazing job at supporting and nurturing pupils – but that there was room to challenge them more.

“The school had a reputation for kindness and niceness, but we weren’t actually challenging the children to reach their full potential,” Louise said. “Kindness is not the same as accepting mediocrity – it’s just the opposite.”

Louise encouraged the teaching body to challenge the students more, giving them the confidence to do so with her support. She also encouraged the staff to be honest with parents about their children’s performance and to work together to motivate pupils more. It all served the goal of enabling children to reach their full potential within a supportive environment.

So, if this is the task at hand, how can we do it well?


Challenge and support

How can we define what it means to be challenged or supported at work? How, as leaders, can we try to achieve that same level of balance as the inspirational teachers of our childhoods?

A leader can challenge by questioning the status quo, looking for continuous improvement and keeping things moving. A leader can also support by checking in often with their team, encouraging everyone to participate and offering coaching where needed.

These are behaviours where we may have a natural preference to do one or the other and it takes self-awareness, emotional intelligence and developed skill to read the situation and respond accordingly.

The best leaders are able to both support and challenge, in the right way at the right time for the best results.

Managing mental health in the workplace

As mental health is a fundamental component of how people think, feel, relate and perform at work, it’s vital to have a company culture that is healthy and supportive.   

Mental health is no longer a peripheral workplace issue. The vast majority of a workforce will have been touched or affected by mental health challenges at some point in their career, whether it has been overcoming difficulties personally or supporting someone who has.

Recent years, particularly during and following the pandemic, brought mental health into sharper focus. While the virus itself was not a cause of mental health conditions, the global response, including prolonged uncertainty, isolation and changes to working patterns, created an environment in which anxiety, stress and low mood were more likely to emerge. In many cases, these challenges were dormant or manageable beforehand, but were intensified or newly triggered by the circumstances people found themselves in.  

For some, this period was especially difficult, particularly those with existing vulnerabilities or limited support networks. For others, it became an unexpected catalyst for adaptation, prompting reassessment of priorities, stronger boundaries and healthier work-life balance. What became increasingly clear was that mental health exists on a spectrum, fluctuating over time and shaped by both personal resilience and organisational context. 

Awareness in the workplace

A healthy workplace culture acknowledges mental health risks without defining people by them. While it is vital to recognise stressors and challenges early, it is equally important not to assume fragility or inevitability.   

Mindsets, therefore, matter. A tendency to catastrophise or to frame experiences in extremes can inadvertently undermine wellbeing. While the placebo effect is well known (where positive beliefs improve outcomes) the “nocebo” effect can do the opposite, reinforcing difficulty and diminishing confidence.   

And therein lies the rub. How do we adequately acknowledge very real personal stressors and mental health risks while, at the same time, keeping ourselves from making them a self-fulfilling prophesy?   

The key is to be aware of both the potential mental health issues that may arise and our ability to overcome them. 

Tips for leaders

1. Everybody’s different

How the working world has changed since the pandemic has shown that trusting people to manage themselves is not just possible but highly effective for the business and something that individuals prize. If you can maintain trust and flexibility, employees will continue to find their way to optimise their approach. It might look different for everyone but that is likely a good thing.  

2.  Wellbeing and performance

Prioritising performance over well-being in anything but the short term is a false dichotomy. They are two sides of the same coin. If we allow our people to attend to their well-being, then they perform for the long term. Performance without well-being is unsustainable, particularly in an ‘infinite game’ like financial services. At Goldcrest Partners, we believe an emphasis on both well-being and performance will yield superior long-term outcomes for organisations and individuals.  

3.  Slow and steady wins the race

Change often fails because it is ‘too much, too soon, too fast’ for the individual or organisation to tolerate. If we let people travel at their own pace and provide appropriate boundaries and encouragement, then it will certainly pay dividends.

In summary, at Goldcrest Partners, we believe it is important to be both vigilant and confident in the ability to mitigate mental health risks and support individuals if needed. Furthermore, allowing individuals the flexibility to optimise their working habits and trusting them to do the right thing may prove to be a key factor in not just mental health but also attracting and retaining the best talent.   

The upside here is a competitive advantage in your people.

Empowerability – the secret to maximising employee potential

Leaders are often advised that empowering their followers is the path to effective teamwork and success. It involves them providing resources, knowledge, skills, and support to their employees and team. Doing so facilitates and encourages employee participation in decision-making to help hit firmwide goals and achieve personal targets.

But to operate at Lightspeed, as exemplified by the success of the Pfizer Covid vaccine rollout, leaders must do more than just empower their teams. They need to ensure their members are ready to seize the opportunities given to them.

In other words, it is essential to consider a team’s empowerability. Arguably, it is just as important as a leader’s ability to empower.

Here, we explore why.

What is empowerability?

First, let’s look more closely at the notion of empowerability and what it means exactly.

Empowerment refers to the process of enabling individuals or groups to gain control over their own choices to help a team or department reach its aims and targets. It’s a key component of effective followership, where employees have the ability to take direction well and to do what is expected of them.

Empowerability, therefore, refers to a person or group’s inherent capability or want to be empowered. It emphasises the importance of building self-confidence, self-efficacy, and self-determination. It is dependent on individuals possessing certain qualities or attributes that allow them to be empowered or become agents of their own development.

Those attributes, skills and mindsets include:

  • ​​A clear comprehension of accountability, understanding the need to take ownership of results and to delegate specific tasks to achieve the desired outcome.
  • Inner confidence in their ability to handle the responsibility, supported by feedback and a track record of success.
  • A deep understanding of their team members who, in turn, can be empowered if they are ready.
  • Recognition of their responsibility to question and seek clarification from those they follow, ensuring a thorough understanding of the task at hand. These questions and challenges are meant for improvement, not just to be difficult for the sake of it.
  • A clear grasp of boundaries and successful followership, while being willing to challenge them when appropriate for the best outcome.
  • Effective communication up and down the chain, reassuring superiors that messages are understood and clearly conveying tasks and responsibilities to subordinates.

Why is empowerability so important?

Empowerability is crucial as it increases and strengthens trust between team members, leaders and followers – making teams more effective. Plus, while trust is the foundation of any strong team, it’s vital in allowing leaders to delegate with confidence. Being able to rely on individual members, means a leader knows they’re going to perform and play their part. Then, subsequently, a leader has more time to dedicate to other value-added activities – not simply checking up on the status of a project or task.

Looking at the real world provides some colour on how empowerability can be so essential to a team’s success.

Consider an orchestra: to create a harmonious symphony, every instrument must play its part flawlessly. Each musician must possess the technical skills and mindset necessary to carry the melody and its supporting parts, maintaining the same level of excellence. Moreover, every member of the orchestra must trust that their fellow musicians will fulfil their roles. The end result is a beautiful performance.

Or, in sports, when a player passes the ball to a teammate, the player needs to know that the recipient knows how to handle it, understands their options, can take responsibility and make accountable decisions.

How can you ensure employees can be empowered?

While some individuals have an innate empowerability, not everyone will immediately have the ability (or want) to be empowered. Across a global business, in particular, there can be difficulties with empowerability. These difficulties may arise due to different cultures having different approaches to leadership, leadership styles and followership.

However, it’s possible to develop empowerability and train employees so that they can be active, effective team members. To do so, consider the following factors:

  • Access to information: Provide individuals with accurate and relevant information so they can make informed choices and decisions.
  • Skills development: Offer opportunities to individuals to develop a range of skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills. Doing so will enhance their capacity to navigate challenges and exert influence.
  • Support networks: Encourage the development of strong social networks and support systems to foster a sense of belonging, increase social capital, and provide individuals with the emotional and practical support they need to pursue their goals.
  • Agency and participation: Encourage individuals to participate actively in decision-making processes, whether at the individual, team, or departmental level, enabling them to have a voice and contribute to shaping their own successful and prosperous career.
  • Advocacy and social change: Empowerability recognises the need to address systemic barriers and advocate for changes in policies, practices, and structures that hinder individuals’ ability to exercise their power and agency fully.

For leaders to support a team member’s empowerability, it can be helpful to remember a number of key ideas. Firstly, be brave and delegate – give people a chance to shine. You may need to support them, but they’ll never grow if you don’t. Additionally, be clear on your expectations as well as your boundaries. Finally, you need to be open and supportive of questions and challenges.

Making empowerability a priority

Remember, when employees possess the capability to be empowered, they transform into effective followers – a fundamental requirement for team success. So, by placing empowerability at the forefront, leaders have the power to unleash the full potential of their employees, fostering a culture rooted in trust and accountability. Organisations can then soar towards sustainable success amidst today’s fiercely competitive business landscape.