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Followership vs. Servant Leadership
SGT John Deer
BLC, 1st PLT, LC1
SSG Richmond
July 18, 2022
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Followership and servant leadership share many similarities while also being
very different. Followership is one’s willingness to take guidance within a team or
organization. Servant leadership is when a leader works to serve his/her followers
rather than the followers serving the leader.
Followership, as stated before, is one’s willingness to follow a leader. Followers
(regarding followership) accept their roles as followers to better assist the team or
organization. John McCallum explains it nicely by saying, “It is the ability to take
direction well, to get in line behind a program, to be part of a team and to deliver on
what is expected of you” (McCallum). Servant leadership is when a leader changes his
mindset from “using” his followers to serving them. This leader sees leadership as a tool
to give back to his followers. As MSGT Griffing puts it, “…the leader serves others and
places their needs first in a humble approach to meeting collective goals” (Griffing). A
servant leader is there for his Soldiers rather than for his followers being there for him.
Followership and servant leadership share many similarities. Firstly, both
followership and servant leadership require individuals to be very self-aware. Both
concepts require the individual to be intellectually inclined. Secondly, followership and
servant leadership challenge the “norm.” Each concept brings a different view to
leadership and being a follower. These two ideas can also work together: an individual
can be a servant leader while practicing the concepts of followership and vice versa.
Lastly, both concepts take work. As Jennifer Mattson puts it when talking about servant
leadership, “you have to practice these things” (Mattson). Choosing to be a servant
leader or a follower forces an individual out of his/her comfort zone by challenging what
the individual has been taught about being a leader or follower.
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Followership and servant leadership are also very different from each other.
Firstly, servant leadership tailors toward leaders while followership tailors to followers.
Secondly, they are similar because they need each other. As LT. COL. Duran Stanton
says, “If there are leaders and managers, there must be followers” (Duran-Stanton).
Lastly, both followership and servant leadership put the needs of others first; servant
leaders put the needs of their followers first, and followers put the needs of their leaders
first.
Followership and servant leadership are related to each other in many ways.
They are also substantially different. One is tailored towards leaders, while the other
focuses on followers. Both require one to be self-aware and to challenge him or herself.
Regardless of which one pertains to you, both are practical tools to use in life.
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References
Duran-Stanton, LT. COL. Amelia. “Lessons in Followership: Good Leaders Aren’t Always
Out Front.” AUSA, 18 May 2021, www.ausa.org/articles/lessons-followershipgood-leaders-arent-always-out-front.
Griffing, Master SGT Aaron. “Servant Leadership: Ten Military Figures Who Got It Right.”
Army University Press, 12 Apr. 2019, www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/NCOJournal/Archives/2019/April/Servant-Leadership/.
Mattson, Jennifer, and NCO Journal. “Sergeant” Means “Servant”: How NCOs Typify the
Servant Leader. 14 May 2013.
McCallum, John S. “FOLLOWERSHIP: THE OTHER SIDE of LEADERSHIP •.”
Iveybusinessjournal.com, 2013, iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/followershipthe-other-side-of-leadership/.