There have been countless moments in history where leadership issues are strongly related to followers. This is mainly because of the vicious influence that leaders and followers have on each other. After reading this week’s lesson about followership, the main point that stuck out to me was destructive followership, and how we seem to be living through an important historical event that correlates exactly to this lesson.
If you look at this chart below, it shows how the leading behaviors and the following behaviors can feed off of each other into the leadership style, and then from there, the outcomes. In simplest terms, when you look at the recent capitol insurrection that happened on January 6th, 2021, this chart is what the past 4 years have looked like with Donal Trump as President, and then outcomes in its highest form were the riots.
President Trump and the followers that he managed to cull over the past 4 years have created a strong bad connotation across not just the country, but the whole world. That is directly because of his destructive leadership style. The lesson stated, “Often, individuals may passively follow a leader when they are experiencing a variety of unmet needs. These needs make them most susceptible to the negative influences of destructive leaders, and they may knowingly or unknowingly create contexts in which destructive leadership can flourish.”. (lesson 3 commentary). Every time that President Trump acted in a foul manner, or did something seemingly illegal, his supporters outward love for him only grew stronger. They loved having someone to defend with their whole heart, who they thought would protect and represent them at any cost. This correlates to the riots because many of the Trump supporters who took action that day had said they believed the President was going to pardon them because they were doing these things for him. If they can carry out such foul acts based false statements and unwavering support, then I would classify that 100% as a destructive leadership- followership style.
I think that Trump’s followers would be classified with a role-based perspective which means that the follower can have influence over the leader, and in turn the leader’s actions will be based on how their followers take it. The Kelley typology states that followers can be either alienated, passive, or conformist. In simple terms, it means that they can show negative energy, show no direction, or will say yes to everything respectively. These alienated and conformist actions of Trump’s followers are the reason he kept acting the way he did. If his followers did not eat up his ideals, then I believe Trump would have stopped acting in the manner he did. If he had no one to support every little thing he said and did, then I’m sure the presidency would have been carried out very differently.
It is clear that there are other and very positive forms of leadership and followership. It happens often in the workplace, and in other settings such as schools, and even home-life. I was just highlighting an example of destructive folowership that will make history, and was a great tie into this week’s lesson. I think followership can be great when done to carry out a good cause, or to create a safe and effective dynamic between a leader and a follower. Clearly as seen here, there’s two sides to every coin.
References:
Hamel, R. (n.d.). Lesson 3: Followership, 2021
I appreciate how when you looked at followership, you took a more recent events approach. It’s easy to think of major historical examples of followership such as the Nazis, but when you are viewing it right in front of your own eyes it helps the lesson reach you on a personal level. There are many leadership behaviors that lead to destructive outcomes, when looking at the riots it was beyond just the followers defending him. In a way, Trump fueled his followers to do this, he even went as far as to urge the crowd to storm the capitol to give Republicans “the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” That is what led his followers to believe that they would be immune to any legal action because they had a leader enabling them to do so.
I completely agree with you, I think if Trump had a different type of follower he wouldn’t have acted so outlandishly during his presidency. But, since he had followers he knew would back him up no matter what, he could act however he wanted to. I want to bring in a new perspective, looking at this situation through the reversing lens approach can help us see how followers affect leaders rather than leaders affecting followers (Northouse, 2019). I believe that some of Trump’s policies and beliefs that were expressed throughout his presidency were in line with his followers so they would continue that support. An example of this would be in his 1999 Meet the Press interview where he states that he wasn’t “disturbed” by Gay individuals in the military and that he is “very pro-choice” saying he just believes in choice in every respect. Then 16 years later during his run for Presidency, he states that he is Pro-Life and that he had evolved since the 1999 interview. Then, in 2017 Trump announced that he was going to ban transgender people from serving in the military. This in a way contradicted his previous statement about Gay individuals in the military.
Now don’t get me wrong people’s opinions can change a lot throughout almost 20 years. But the timeliness of these changes seemed so calculated and they fit his follower’s agenda. When you look at data, you can see how his views may have leaned more towards his follower’s feelings. It can be shown in the fact that only 37% of Republicans favor gay-marriage and 62% believe that abortion should be illegal in all/ most cases (PEW Research Center, 2019). In a way, these followers could be affecting how Trump expressed his beliefs so he could get continued support.
Resources:
“Changing Attitudes on Same-Sex Marriage.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, 14 May 2019, http://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/changing-attitudes-on-gay-marriage/.
Keneally, Meghan. “Donald Trump’s Evolving Stance on Abortion.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 31 Mar. 2016, abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trumps-evolving-stance-abortion/story?id=38057176 http://www.npr.org/2017/07/27/539559582/5-unanswered-questions-about-trumps-ban-on-transgender-troops.
“Public Opinion on Abortion.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, 29 Aug. 2019, http://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/.
Northouse, P.G. (2019). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
“Trump in 1999: ‘I Am Very Pro-Choice’.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 8 July 2015, http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/trump-in-1999-i-am-very-pro-choice-480297539914.
“US: Trump’s Actions Fuel Capitol Riot.” Human Rights Watch, 6 Jan. 2021, http://www.hrw.org/news/2021/01/06/us-trumps-actions-fuel-capitol-riot.