20 Aug 2020|Noida | Amity University, Noida ( Online)
Webinar on ‘Followership - The other aspect of Leadership’
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A webinar on ‘Followership - The other aspect of Leadership’ was conducted by Cdr Nagesh K Moorthy (Retd) - DGM - Cochin Shipyard Ltd. He stated that since Amity was creating future leaders, this session would prove beneficial for the students. Leaders are very important to any organization and great leaders of the past and present are studied in detail. He added that companies invest significant amount of time and resources in looking for leaders to hire and cultivating leadership in the employees already available.
He stressed upon followership that was a corollary of leadership and held a significant position as well. The relationship between leaders and followers can be seen in ancient wisdom as well. Followership is the ability to take direction well, be a part of a team and to deliver what is expected. He averred that problem in followership arises as leadership has glamour and attention; there is a stigma attached to ‘followership skills’ and the label “excellent follower” can be an unwelcome compliment. Further, the fact that in organizations everybody is both a leader and a follower depending on the circumstances, just adds to the ‘paradox of the followership stigma’. Cdr Moorthy added that most of us are often followers than leaders. He emphasized on the effect of weak followership as how well the followers follow is just as important to an organization’s success as how well the leaders lead. He also shared that weak leadership and weak followership are two sides of the same coin. Followership problems manifest themselves in a poor work ethic, bad moral and distraction from goals. This often leads to unsatisfied customers, lost opportunities, high costs, product quality issues and weak competitiveness.