When I first heard of followership, I immediately rejected the concept. My parents have told me, since birth, that I was a leader. It almost became an excuse for why the other kids didn’t like me or why the other girls my age bullied me: Zoe, you’re just a leader. Not a follower.

In the words of my parents, followers are people who go with the pack. The people who take drugs and succumb to peer pressure. Followers are the answer to the question if so and so jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge too? 

However, as I read the article in the Ivey Business Journal, I concluded that Followership is not behind or beneath leadership. I believe it is leadership adjacent. As I read further, I recognized myself in the characteristics listed.

McCallum outlined eight qualities of a good follower, and begrudgingly, I acknowledged that I possessed some of those characteristics.

Judgement.  Followers must take direction but they have an underlying obligation to the enterprise to do so only when the direction is ethical and proper.  The key is having the judgement to know the difference between a directive that your leader gives on how to proceed that you do not agree with and a directive that is truly wrong.

As I previously mentioned, my parents stressed good judgment from a young age. We were given the freedom to make our own decisions, but they tried to teach us right and wrong. I believe I have good judgment and a moral code to which I adhere.

Work ethic.  Good followers are good workers.  They are diligent, motivated, committed, pay attention to detail and make the effort.  Leaders have a responsibility to create an environment that permits these qualities but regardless, it is the responsibility of the follower to be a good worker.  There is no such thing as a bad worker who is a good follower.

I work hard, and I do excellent work. I strive to do my best on the smallest of tasks, and I never intentionally do less than my best on a project.

Competence.  The follower cannot follow properly unless competent at the task that is directed by the leader.  It is the obligation of the leader to assure that followers are competent.  Sometimes things go wrong because the follower is not competent at the task at hand.  When this happens, leaders should blame themselves, not the follower.  A sign of poor leadership is blaming followers for not having skills they do not have.

As my mother says, my core competency is competency. I am very vocal that I am the wrong person for a task if I am not competent at it. If I am adhering to the principles of Followership, then I am only making it easier for a leader to find a task that I am competent in.

Honesty.  The follower owes the leader an honest and forthright assessment of what the leader is trying to achieve and how.  This is especially the case when the follower feels the leader’s agenda is seriously flawed.  Respect and politeness are important but that said, it is not acceptable for followers to sit on their hands while an inept leader drives the proverbial bus over the cliff.  Good leaders are grateful for constructive feedback from their team.  Bad leaders do not welcome feedback and here followers have to tread carefully.  If the situation is serious enough, consideration should be given to going above the leader in question for guidance.

I am honest; sometimes brutally so. I have no issue telling someone they are wrong or if I disagree with what they say. I value honesty and feedback, and therefore, I will not refrain or bite my tongue for the sake of politeness. Sometimes, that gets me in trouble, but as Representative John Lewis says, there is such a thing as good trouble.

Courage.  Followers need to be honest with those who lead them.  They also need the courage to be honest.  It takes real courage to confront a leader about concerns with the leader’s agenda or worse, the leader himself or herself.  It is not for naught that Churchill called courage “The foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend”.  From time to time, it takes real courage to be a good follower.

“There are all kinds of courage,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I, therefore, award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom.”

I can be honest even when the situation gets tough. I am not afraid to speak my mind if someone is wrong. Courage is a virtue, as is honesty, and the two go hand in hand. If courage and honesty make me a good follower, then so be it.

Discretion.  A favorite saying in World War II was “Loose lips sink ships.”  Sports teams are fond of the expression “What you hear here, let it stay here.”  Followers owe their enterprises and their leaders discretion.  Talking about work matters inappropriately is at best unhelpful and more likely harmful.  Discretion just means keeping your mouth shut.  It should be easy but many find it next to impossible.  Bluntly, you cannot be a good follower and be indiscreet.  Everybody who works at an enterprise has a duty of care; indiscretion is not care, it is careless.

My dad sometimes says, “this stays in the family.” That means there’s some important business or secret that he had to tell me, but I wasn’t allowed to tell my friends. My friends know me as someone who can keep a secret. However, I am not the kind of person who keeps secrets that can harm others. Lately, in the media, whistleblowers have been making waves for breaking confidentiality and revealing the horrible things their corporations do. Discretion, to some extent, can be valuable. But here I disagree with McCallum: free-thinking, honesty, and bravery are more important than discretion.

Loyalty.  Good followers respect their obligation to be loyal to their enterprise.  Loyalty to the enterprise and its goals is particularly important when there are problems, interpersonal or otherwise, with a particular leader.  Followers who are not loyal are inevitably a source of difficulty.  They create problems between team members; they compromise the achievement of goals; they waste everybody’s time; they are a menace.  Loyalty is not a synonym for lapdog.  Rather, its essence is a strong allegiance and commitment to what the organization is trying to do.  Followers should remember that their obligation is to the enterprise, not a given leader at a given point in time.

I am loyal, often to a fault. Sometimes nonsensically, in the case of brand loyalty. I have never seen myself as a ‘lapdog’ for my loyalty. Instead, I have seen it as one of my greatest strengths. I am loyal to my friends. I am loyal to my family. I am loyal to my school. I am loyal to my sports teams– Go Pens! If I join an organization, it is because I have placed my trust and respect in that organization, and I will be loyal to them unless they wrong me.

Ego management.  Good followers have their egos under control.  They are team players in the fullest sense of the concept.  They have good interpersonal skills.  Success for good followers relates to performance and goal achievement, not personal recognition and self-promotion.  Sounds too good to be true and often it is.  It is difficult but the best organizations tie advancement and reward to performance and goal achievement as hard as that may be to do.

I often have trouble keeping my ego in check, and that is a personal problem that I have been working on for a very long time. I need to learn to derive my achievement from reaching my goals and acknowledging my own hard work, not from the recognition and approval of others. If I can strive towards ego management, I think it will not only make me a better follower but a better leader.

In conclusion, I still don’t 100% agree with the principles of followership. While reading the article, I found myself aligning more with the managers in the situation than the worker. However, unless I become the head of an organization (which I strive towards) I will always be managed. Until then, I think I can be an excellent leader by acknowledging the qualities of a good follower.

Lilacs adorned the backyard of my home in New York. Every year, when they would blossom, my father would cut off the branches, and place them in our rooms. They said, “Spring is here! Passover, Easter, they’re here!”

This past May, I went on a life-changing trip to Poland with the Agnes Scott History department and the Center for Global Learning. The third day there, as we were walking around Warsaw, I began to feel homesick. I missed my family and being fourth-generation Polish, I was at once homesick and home. It reminded me of my great-grandmother, it reminded me of my home in New York, it reminded me of everything and nothing all at once.

Then, I saw Lilacs.

For the rest of the trip, I saw Lilacs everywhere. It was like a sign, saying, “You are home.” And I knew that flower would always be special for me.

Zoe Katz is a Junior at Agnes Scott College, majoring in History and Business Management. Originally from Binghamton, New York, Zoe moved to Athens, Georgia, when she was 11 years old.  Her academic interests include Marketing, New Media Studies, and Religious Renaissance movements. Her personal interests include hockey, where she roots for the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL) and the New York Riveters (NWHL), Barberitos burritos, Jittery Joe’s coffee, and Harry Potter. She is a proud Hufflepuff. When she grows up, she wants to be the Director of Marketing for the Pittsburgh Penguins. 

I’m a proud Center for Digital and Visual Literacy tutor!

I was hired at the end of last school year to teach my peers and professors about all things digital and visual. This includes video software, photo manipulation software, graphic design, blogging, coding, and more! I couldn’t be more thrilled for this opportunity.

My first assignment for my new tutoring job is to answer a few questions– so here we go!

What is your major/area of academic interest?
I am a Business Management/History double major. Specific academic interests of mine include Marketing, New Media studies, Creative Leadership (for business), and Renaissance and Religious studies (for history). Thanks to the Summit program, I’ll graduate with a certificate in Global Learning!

What are your post-graduate goals?
I want to be the Marketing Director of the Pittsburgh Penguins! I am fascinated by sports marketing, and I want to use my education to take sports media into the future.

I would also love to work for Women’s professional leagues, such as the National Women’s Hockey League, the National Women’s Soccer League, or Team USA! Empowering women through sports is something I’m passionate about, so that would be an amazing opportunity!

What excites you about working in the Center for Digital and Visual Literacy?
I am excited to have specific time devoted to working on creative pursuits. Photoshop, documentary making, writing– I’m an extremely creative person, but I have trouble setting aside time to relax and express my creativity, which leads me to feel tense and stressed out! I’m excited that I’ll have a job where creativity is mandatory, and I can work on my other passions that aren’t school!

What specific or unique skills do you bring to the CDVL community?
I think my creativity is unique. I think of things as if I’m directing a movie or writing a play– two things I’ve done! I’m all about the aesthetics and functionality of a project. I also have a lot of experience coming in– I work in Social Media/Marketing for my real, actual job, and that’s taught me a lot. I can’t wait to share my knowledge with others!