Effective Follower Characteristics

Before taking the position of a great leader everyone must first learn to follow. An effective follower and a successful leader have multiple characteristics in common. Five characteristics that make a great follower and in time, an efficient leader are this motivation, accountability, the ability to recognize and seize an opportunity, coachability, and ambition. Motivation is a key component to become an effective follower and getting a job done. Self-motivated employees complete tasks quicker and more efficiently. Leaders will look for the person who goes out of their way to get the job done. This type of motivation frees up the manager to take care of other tasks. Self-motivation of one team member may also help motivate others on the team, making it an invaluable characteristic. Accountability is a necessary characteristic in being a positive follower because the employer must trust that the employee will go through with what he or she says. When the employee feels responsible for task completion and the quality of the resulting product, they are more apt to do a better job at completing the task. Accountability also helps build trust between the employees
and management. Some of the ways to improve accountability is to be on time, keep a calendar of important dates, and complete assigned jobs in a timely manner (Campbell, 1997, ch.5). The ability to recognize and seize opportunity is an invaluable quality of a follower.
When a follower is able to identify opportunities and take advantage of them, the team is more likely to turn out a better quality product. This type of ability can lead to the creation of new products, identifying a previously untapped customer base, and the reinvention of a product that is a poor performer. Cris Maser (2010) stated, "Opportunity rarely looks like an opportunity. Often opportunity arrives incognito, disguised as misfortune, defeat, and rejection" (p.1). This ability benefits the individual, any team they may be a part of, and the company who hired them. These individuals are likely to be identified by management as having the necessary qualities for higher level jobs in the
future. To be coachable is the ability to listen and take criticism without taking offense. To be able to listen to what leadership or other members of the team are saying, analyze the information gathered in this exchange, and critically apply it to the task. A good indicator of coachability can be an individuals' reaction to their performance review. Performance reviews include both what an employee is doing well and improvements to be made. An employee then chooses how to use this information. They can be proactive and coachable, using this information as a personal plan for improvement or they can take it negatively and either not work on any improvements, or even worse, react defensively to the suggestions made. Leadership will recognize this downfall and start to promote other people who are willing to listen and learn. Ambition is the desire to do or achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. If a company is trying to decide which follower to promote to the next level, and one is ambitious and one is not, whom do you think will get the promotion? An ambitious person will come into the setting every day with the mentality to do what is asked of them to the best of their ability, and work hard at doing it. No one wants a follower that is lazy and does not care about furthering his or her abilities. There are many characteristics that a good follower may possess, but these five are key components that add the most value to the team. These aspects will not only make a person a great follower, but will eventually turn them into a great leader. Every person must start at ground level. It is up to every individual on whether they want to remain at the bottom or progress through the ranks.