A very good friend was trained at Sandhurst. He took a patrol out on night manoeuvres through a dense wood - trying to avoid being discovered by the enemy. His team came to a break in the woods and had to cross a road. This was a danger point threatening the patrol with discovery - and defeat - in the exercise. He gathered his men in a ditch by the side of the road, they synchronised watches and agreed that when he signalled them they would move quickly across the road, keeping low and throw themselves in the parallel ditch. The signal came, my friend kept low, crossed the road and flung himself in the ditch, only to find the rest of his patrol were still in place where he had left them. He was a leader without followers. However clear or urgent his instructions had been he was in one place and his team were in another.

Ira Challeff created the term “followership”. As my friend’s story illustrates, it is the actions of followers that determine the success of a leader.  We were fortunate enough to spend some time with Ira recently. He describes follower as a role not a personality type. We decide whether to take that role. As Ira points out people do not like to describe themselves as a follower.  We may be reluctant followers, we may be compliant followers - or we may be courageous followers. Ira points to the well-chronicled failures of followers - failure to pass on important information, failure to challenge wrong decisions, failure to respond to challenges. Followers were ineffective in Enron, Andersons, Lehman Brothers - but of course, the reason for that failure is strongly linked to the leadership culture. Effective leaders engage followers, they encourage and actively enable openness and challenge. they respond positively to the bad news or the reality checks that come from further down the organisation. In turn this leads to empowered followers who have the confidence to make decisions, be proactive, be innovative - and support the success of the organisation. 

In times of challenge and change it is so easy (and tempting) to revert to a command and control style of leadership. This creates compliant followers. The more courageous leader wants to tap into the passion and intelligence of their teams, to find the new and more effective ways of working, to have front line staff who can be powerful ambassadors for the organisation. Ira’s book ‘Courageous Followers’ gives a refreshing insight into the impact of leadership - it is an essential read whether you are on night manoeuvres or have bigger battles to fight in the day to day challenges of enabling organisation change.  

Voluntary groups come in all shapes and sizes from the large corporate organisations with prestigious offices and a national reputation to the small, local community, faith or voluntary organisation - often referred to as the third sector. The challenges remain constant - how do you get good performance out of people who do are volunteers - or have small salaries? How do you tap their expertise and passion to best effect?  In short how do you engage them?

Leaders in voluntary organisations have to spend a disproportionate amount of time on engaging their teams. Without this they can not deliver. RNIB have just completed a programme looking at values. They recognise that shared values give people the drive and motivation to come to work, and an ability to make a positive impact on other people’s lives can be a key driver of staff engagement.   They have identified six shared values and want to see them reflected at all levels in the organisation. (People Management magazine 26 February 2009)

In our experience many organisations in the voluntary sector have “assumed values”; there is lots of good will around but in reality the values are unclear and that lack of clarity can cause tension. Being deliberate about values has a huge impact on effectiveness. With clear values people know what is expected of them, standards can be encouraged, behaviour can be challenged, and people are energised to make a difference through what they do.

In Caret we practice what we preach and have been reviewing our own values - it is good to see what gets us excited about the work we do, what drives our commitment to go that extra mile, what unites us as a team. It may seem a strange time to be talking about values in a recession, but values give you a constant in times of great change. More than that they can give the energy and passion, and the determination to get through the current difficulties. One of our long established clients is St Basils who work with homeless young people - they will constantly ask how this decision impacts the lives of young people. This can impact the mundane admin as well as complex strategy - values make the difference for St Basils - and give them the determination and focus to succeed. It’s a determination that could make a real difference for all organisations in every sector.