Followership

Followership

What is followership? According to Miriam-Webster dictionary followership is “the capacity or willingness to follow a leader.” In class we went over what people would do if they were put in a situation to either stand up and be a leader or just sit back in the stands and wait for something else to happen.

Over the summer, I work at a camp for kids with systemic diseases. Each week is a different disease and no matter what is wrong with the child, they know that when one is at this particular camp nothing else matters and it’s all about them. When I come to this camp it makes me think about how special each and every one of these kids are. I learn so much about each one in the whole summer that I am there. It makes me think about how unique each one of them is and how much every single one of them makes a difference and show their true leadership abilities. It must be so scary to come to a camp where everyone has the same disease as you, but it also must be so nice to know that there is followership there. You come and follow the people around you because you know that you will fit in.

I feel that in every situation there is going to be someone that follows the one in front of them. It’s almost like a domino effect. Once one stands up and shows they are a leader, one is going to follow, and then the next is going to follow the one in front. Followership is not necessarily a bad thing because you have to be a follower once in order to be a leader. However, even though being a follower isn’t a bad thing, I feel like it stops one from making the honest decisions that one would make in a dire situation that one should make in order to stay true to oneself.

Ever since I was two years old, I have been dancing. When one is in a dance class, at the end of the year you have a performance in front of all your friends and family. In order to be in this group dance, you need to know how to follow because each person is put in a row, and you are to follow the one in front of you. Not only do you have to follow the person in front of you, you need to learn how to pick up fast and learn the routine.

All of this consists of following and is describing followership. Followership is “the capacity or willingness to follow a leader.” Everyone goes through followership throughout his or her life. It is a process to become a follower and then eventually a leader.