Followership

Hello Everybody,

The book "Followership" covers the inner details of an interesting relationship, the one between the leader and the followers. As in all human relationships this is not a one way communication.

I had watched in a documentary, the formation of  a new queen-bee in a beehive. The eggs laid by the old Queen are not different for the worker bees and the new queen-bee(s) usually the hive converts some of the ordinary eggs into a queen bee egg by introducing additional nutiritients into their cells. This means the hive estimates the need for a leader for the next generation i.e. if they had a bad winter and the population is stable or decreased they don't produce additional Queen(s) for the hive. If the environment is suitable, they convert some of the eggs into prospect Queen or Queens. Then the hive sparates into two groups and the new Queen and old one makes a struggle to keep the hive. The loser takes some of the group and leaves the hive. Therofere it's not incorrect to say that the  hive decides about their leaders according to their needs. I think this is true with most of the human societies. When there's an important decision or potential threat the new leaders do not pop out concidentally but they are created by followers for specific purposes. The bee example shows us that the followers not only impact the leaders, but also has an important role in creation of them.

Also it's not the will power of the leader which determine the way to go most of the time. I think the route is drawn by the group dynamics of people thinking and acting together.  No matter how mighty, intelligent, brave and strong a leader is he can not equal the combined power of followers especially if they're in hundreds or thousands in number. The leader has small impacts of guiding the followers in some moments of decisions, which are limited in number and impact, but the general movement of the group is determined by the complex interactions between each individual. We may think of it as a dynamic hierarchy of leadership passing from one person to another in a chaotic way in each little bit of interaction.  It depends on the capacity of the leader to be able to show empathy with the group, to show the willpower and judgement necessary to direct the followers. However from the followers' side the power does not depend on any single individual's specific opinions, it's the social mind that is formed by interactions of the followers which determine their impact on the leader and convert him or her into what is needed by the group.

Mehmet Zirek