Leadership and Followership - Essay Example

Leadership and Followership Leadership and followership are interrelated each other. If there is a follower, there should be a leader and leaders are nothing without followers. Same person could be a leader and a follower even in the same organization and in the same profession. Leaders adopt different styles in their functioning based on the situations. Effective communication between the leaders and the followers is the core of successful leadership and followership. This paper analyses my perspectives of leadership, followership and effective communication methods, focusing more on healthcare industry. Leadership and Followership Leaders are big zeros without followers. Followers are the strengths and weaknesses of the leaders. Some leaders might get better followers and they will face fewer problems in leading them whereas some other leaders may get problematic followers and it is difficult for them to lead such followers towards the target. People will never follow somebody blindly. They will follow somebody for some purpose. Leaders can effectively lead the followers only if they will be able to provide genuine reasons for the mutual benefits. In any case, leadership and followership are interconnected and neither of it can survive without having the support from the other one. My expectations of followership I expect my followers to support me always even if I made some unpopular decisions. They should realize that the ultimate aim of my decisions would be to reach the target which is good for them as well. If they have some disagreements with my decisions, I expect them to make me aware of it privately rather than complaining publicly. My followers should keep all their discussions with me as a private matter and they should never discuss it with their colleagues. Such open discussions may create problems to me as well as to them also. They should accept all the responsibilities provided to them. I don’t like somebody capable of taking a responsibility, denying it when it is offered to him. My followers should reveal the truth or the exact reasons to me if they were unable to do something instructed. They should never hide any information related to the project from me. Moreover, they should have better knowledge about their own strengths and weaknesses. I expect all my followers to communicate well with me and communicate well with each other. They should take initiatives wherever possible to solve a problem and should not wait for my instructions always, if they have absolute surety of the solutions. I always try to keep all the above aspects of followership in my dealings with my superiors. I never waited for the instructions from my superiors if I have absolute surety of solving a problem. I always try to reduce the problems of my superior rather than increasing it. I do not believe in 100% totalitarian and democratic approaches in leadership. An effective leader cannot be a democratic or autocratic leader always. Based on the situations and the nature of the followers, leadership styles should be changed. If an employee point out a mistake, I gladly accept it; if I convinced that the employee has positive intentions. On the other hand, if I feel that the employee has wrong intentions, I will definitely take actions against him in order to prevent him from repeating the mistake again. I don’t like somebody following me blindly. Same way I am not ready to follow somebody blindly. Blind followership will never last long in my opinion. My followers should develop faith in my leadership qualities and abilities which will help me in leading them successfully. Same way I follow my superiors only if I have faith in their abilities. The followers should obey the instructions of the leader and the leader should be able to give acceptable instructions to the followers. Benefits and drawbacks of maintaining friendship with the subordinates It is difficult for an effective leader to maintain friendship with the followers always. The needs of the follower and the needs of the leader might often clash each other. For example, the leader always tries to derive maximum productivity out of the followers whereas most of the times followers try to avoid hard work. Barnett (2010) has mentioned about theory X and theory Y in order to classify the employees into two different classes. Theory X is about workers who dislike their work and Theory Y is about workers who like their work (Barnett, 2010). In other words, employees who dislike their work by nature (Theory X) will always try to avoid hard work which will create problems to the leader. Under such circumstances, the leader should be able to use some force or pressure to make changes in the negative attitudes of the employee. In short, it is difficult for the leader to maintain friendship with employees of X caliber. On the other hand, the leader can keep strong friendships with employees of the Y caliber up to certain extent as those workers like responsibilities and hard work. Even though most of the times, friendship strengthens the relationships between the leader and the follower, it is possible that some employees may try to take undue advantages out of the friendship with the leader. According to Rosenau (2004), leadership is the result of extensive expectations, considerable followership, and limited discretion (Rosenau 2004). Extensive expectations and limited discretion are the enemies of friendship and hence it is difficult for the leader to maintain friendship and still able to bring out the most out of the employees all the time. In short, instead of friendship, effective relationship between the leader and the follower is necessary to get the things done in a proper way. Effective way to deal with interdisciplinary health care relationships Cooperation between the healthcare professionals is the key in providing proper treatment to the patients. Each member of the healthcare profession has been trained specifically for their profession and the combined efforts of these specially trained professionals will lead to the speedy recovery of the patient. Like all other industries, healthcare industry is also consisting of different professionals like doctors, nurses, pharmacy staffs, administrative staffs, HR professionals etc. Communication between these professionals can be ensured through meetings, emails, telephonic conversations etc. Meeting is the most effective communication mean compared to emails or telephonic conversations. Practically it is difficult for all members of each department to attend the meetings. Representatives of each department can attend the meeting and these representatives can convey the messages to all other members of their department. According to modern theories of communication, in a face to face meeting, the ideas communicated through nonverbal means like gestures, facial expressions, eye contacts etc are more than the ideas conveyed through verbal means. “According to Bean (2008), 7 percent of an initial impression is based on whats said, 38 percent is based on style of speech and 55 percent on body language (Bean, 2008). In short, majority of the ideas are communicated through nonverbal means which is possible only in direct face to face meetings. In other words, meeting or direct face to face communication is far better than emails. Normally, the HR department calls and organizes the meeting after the consultation with the medical superintend or the head of the doctors. References 1. Barnett, T. (2010). Theory X and Theory Y. Encyclopedia of Management. Retrieved from http://www.enotes.com/management-encyclopedia/theory-x-theory-y 2. Bean, D (2008). Nonverbal Communication. How To Perfect Everything You Say (Without Actually Saying It). Retrieved from http://www.speech-time.com/nonverbalcommunication.html 3. Rosenau, J. (2004). Followership and discretion: assessing the dynamics of modern leadership. Harvard International Review. Fall 2004. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb137/is_3_26/ai_n29136555/ Read More