Webinar Summary (by Dan Jenkins)
The majority of my work facilitating followership education is with undergraduate and graduate students, both at my university and through my speaking and consulting engagements at other institutions of higher education as well as other for- and non-profit organizations.
Connecting with these audiences, specifically when the focus has been applied or educational, has stemmed from a brief presentation and learning activity based upon the "Model of Leader and Follower Experiences as a Source of Transformational Learning" (Guthrie & Jenkins, 2018) from our book The Role of Leadership Educators: Transforming Learning, that posits that any experience an individual might have in a leader or follower role, including those where the individual is not in a formal role or an active participant, contributes to leadership learning. The brief learning activity that accompanies this concept asks participants to think about a time where they either received or provided feedback and what they learned from that experience (and to jot down some thoughts about that experience). There are some additional prompts for processing through paired discussion or as a large group. I'd love to run this activity during the webinar.
The parts of the basic workshop that I've found most impactful have been:
- Utilizing both the "leadership lessons from dancing guy" and the "dance of leaders and followers" tango videos as methods for using metaphors to drive home the concepts of the leadership-followership process and leader-follower partnership respectively.
- The Leader-Follower Organization flowchart as a visual representation of complex and adaptive leadership and organizations to drive home the idea that organizations require adaptability, interdependence, and shared leadership/followership.
- That leaders and followership both share a common purpose and have self-interest.
