Dr. Jeffery David Whippo Explains the Relationship between Leadership and Followership

1. Dr. Jeffery David Whippo Explains the Relationship between Leadership and Followership Dr. Jeffery David Whippo, who is an experienced business educator and leadership expert, explains that leaders are both formal and informal within organizations. Formal leaders are those that have been sanctioned by power and authority, usually through position or title; whereas informal leaders are those that the members of the team look up to within the organization. He says that in either case, leaders are those that guide and direct the behaviors of others within the work environment. Jeffery David Whippo tells us that the term leader isn’t necessarily interchangeable with the term manager. While managers may have the ability to be leaders, Dr. Whippo explains, managers don’t necessarily make good leaders. He articulates that managers are focused on directing the work of others through actions such as the Task Cycle (Wilson, 2003) on tasks like making goals clear and important, planning work and solving problems, facilitating the work of others, providing feedback, exercising control, and re-inforcing good performance. On the other hand, Jeffery explains that, leadership, as defined by John P. Kotter (1998), is responsible for three key functions - setting direction, gaining alignment, and motivating and inspiring people. Jeff Whippo feels that leaders cannot accomplish the organizations’ goals without having followers. Followership, he explains, is the process of being directed and guided by a leader. Dr. Whippo describes that in recent years the views of the follower have changed from passive or autonomous to be more dynamic due to new concepts of empowerment and self-managed work teams. He clarifies that effective followers have been shown to be more committed to self- management and self-responsibility along with a high level of commitment to the organization as a whole.

2. According to him, leaders should never underestimate or forget about the importance of having followers that trust their direction and that will act in an effort to accomplish the set goals and objectives.