Comparing Followership and Leadership
Servant leadership has many qualities. An important quality to me is fearlessness. If a leader has fearlessness he will be able to complete the mission to the best his abilities no matter what the cost. If I am a soldier and I see my leader get shot and keep moving to cover I would be motivated to cover him and give him first aid. Trust is another big trait of servant leadership. If I trust my leader I will be way more confident getting the mission done. Like Alexander the Great said, “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.” (Great, n.d.) You can have soldiers who know their job like the back of their hand. If their leader is not trusted or is toxic how can you expect the soldiers to perform to standard? You may say that it is the soldier’s job to perform to standard even though their leader is toxic; but how can you expect that group of soldiers to bring everyone back home if they don’t trust the leader. Servant leadership qualities are important because it is mission essential to gain your soldiers trust. If they do not trust you as a leader because of the qualities you have. You as the Leader failed. If you do not have any leadership qualities you cannot be a successful servant leader. Both servant leadership and followership needs ambitions as well as competence. A good leader needs the ambition to show soldiers what is right and wrong. Leaders also need competence to put personal feelings aside and get the mission done.
Main Principles for Success
Followership has many principles, unlike leadership. The first principle is loyalty. Followers need to be loyal to their leader but still have an open mind to put their ideas on a task in their leaders head. Another principle is ambition. A good follower has the ambition to be a leader, and will take chances given by leadership to complete the task in their own way. An effective follower is very active with his or hers mission and asks other soldiers how they would complete a task. While the leader delegates task down, an effective follower takes the younger soldiers down and mentors them through the tasks. . ‘The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.’ (Thucydides) What Thucydides is saying here is if we separate our soldiers on skill instead of cohesion as a team we will have a failed army. You may say that leadership and followership have no similarities. Servant leadership and followership have to go hand in hand because some leaders have to become followers to complete the task. Sometimes followers will have to become leaders to accomplish the mission.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, there are many similarities and differences between servant leadership and followership. Both are crucial to the soldiers because how do soldiers expect to be a great NCO without one or the other. I would rather have a team that would go to the toughest of places with me and have my back. Rather than have a team with me that does not does not trust or want to be loyal to my decisions.
