The change we need begins when we become good followers

By Charles Kanjama

I have been there before and I know it’s not easy. Having to speak in a seminar during the graveyard shift! In this case, it was the last session before a late lunch. This was during the recent annual conference of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK). We were about 600 lawyers, and we were mainly waiting for the programme to conclude with the Attorney General’s vote of thanks.

Ms Raychelle Omamo, former LSK chairperson and subsequently Kenyan envoy to France and Canada, strode gracefully to the stage, resplendent in eye-catching African attire. She had the unenviable task of keeping us engaged for 20-odd minutes as she presented the last paper of the LSK seminar, while our attention was wavering, our hunger gnawing, and our interest diminished.

After numerous sessions on the conference theme, “Leadership and Integrity”, I confess I had heard enough about leadership. So maybe that is why I was captivated by Raychelle’s presentation. Because she did not really talk about leadership but about followership. Maybe this contrast is why I greatly enjoyed her speech.

Or maybe it’s because I had watched the London Olympics men’s marathon, and seen the race develop into a battle between two leading Kenyans Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang, and one following Ugandan, Stephen Kiprotich.

Kiprotich was running in the bronze position before he surprised the Kenyans by accelerating past them at a tactical bend of the race. So when Raychelle began her presentation by displaying a photo of Kirui and Kipsang running ahead of Kiprotich just before he left them for dead, I was taken.

Raychelle gave two key ideas about followership. The first, linked to Kiprotich, was that to become a leader one must first be a good follower. I found the idea unforgettable. Because it is true, good leaders were good followers before they became leaders. And to remain a good leader, one must retain a strong followership instinct, which simply means a readiness to learn, humility, not fearing to make mistakes.

Our society instinctively considers leadership, not followership, a sign of success. So we tend to slacken if we lack a clear path to leadership, and would rather seek out any small entity to become leaders. We tend to be sluggish followers, not realising that only inspired followers become inspiring leaders. The reality is that most of us will be followers most of the time, and must thus learn good and effective followership.

The second idea was that empowered followers may be as powerful as their leaders, able to guide their leaders by their opinions, able to create change and change leaders, and able to follow their leaders when they move in the right direction. A good leader is keen to make good followers, and vice versa.

Followership, in this second sense, implies solidarity, fraternity, fellowship. The leader is often alone, but the follower seldom is. So the follower, in a subtle sense, influences the mass while remaining part of it. Yet this is really what a good leader does. So true leadership always includes followership, and effective followership implies leadership.

Modern leadership theory emphasises that leadership and followership should not be viewed as ranks of authority or subordination, but as roles or responses.

Thus Michael McKinney comments, “Followership, like leadership, is a role, not a destination.” Barbara Kellerman of Havard University, author of the fascinating book, Followership, also remarked, “Followership does not mean changing the rank of followers but changing their response to their rank, their response to their superiors and to the situation at hand.”

As Kenya moves towards elections, we need to take a fresh look at leadership and followership. We must be persuaded that the change we need does not begin when we elect good leaders, but when we become good followers. For March 2013 to produce good leaders, we must become good followers today, not cynical political analysts but an engaged, informed and discerning electorate.

The writer is an Advocate of the High Court