The Tango of Lead and Follow - Ellen Thayer

In Ellen Thayer's thesis "Followership and the Dance of Lead and Follow," (Augsburg College, 2000) she establishes an Argentine tango metaphor for what is going on. On the first page of her thesis, she argues Robert Greenleaf was one of the first to understand to value of followers and quotes Warren Bennis emphasizing the increasing importance of followership studies as well. She has a lengthy discussion of both Kelley and Chaleff's followership work as well as comments from other leadership thinkers.

In her section on the cultural shift from an industrial to post-industrial world view (pp 19-20), she provokes me to wonder what relevance Thomas Friedman's"The World Is Flat" arguments might have for followship research and conversation. In an increasingly flat world in which we are all competing against everyone else, could it be that these flattening forces could be exponentially amping up the importance of good followership? In a hyper-competitive world, even the best leaders will not survive without fully engaged, effective followers. Return to this theme later...

Her conversation about power (pp 21-23) is also thought-provoking. Similar to the cultural shift above, isn't it logical that the centers of power are also flattening? As leaders come to depend more and more on followers, power is inevitably pushed downward.

She finishes her thesis with a very lengthy (pp 25-31!) explanation/application of a tango metaphor for the leader/follower dynamic. While I like the artistic and musical way of describing things, I'll confess I'm far less interested in dancing than Thayer. The other problem I have with the metaphor is Thayer's very emotional use of it. While I enjoy artistic, musical and emotional things more than most folks, I think we want to tread very lightly with emotions in this conversation. The importance of followership has little or nothing to do with emotion - it is simply good business practice. While there are emotional elements to all things, it is not the emotional aspects of this conversation that sell. Followership theory must not and will not stand on a profoundly emotional foundation. We aren't trying to be mushy and cuddly - we're trying to get work done. But then, as an overly emotional person myself, perhaps I'm overreacting to what Thayer is saying. See? Emotion scary and unhelpful!

This is obviously a student effort, but still a good summary of many of the issues involved in the conversation. Thanks Ellen!