Why Great Leaders Must Also Be Great Followers: The Critical Balance for Long-term Success

The Mammoth in the Room

As a leader, how often do you consciously step back and follow, recognizing the value of allowing others to lead in areas outside your expertise? Do you understand how balancing leadership with followership can impact your team’s success and cohesion?

In this week’s episode, we explore the evolution of leadership and the often-overlooked importance of followership. Drawing on insights from early human societies to modern corporate environments, we’ll explore how leadership behaviors have developed as solutions to critical coordination problems.

We’ll discuss the concept of task-specific leadership, where individuals lead based on their expertise. The approach contrasts with the modern corporate world, where leadership roles are often secured through overconfidence and passion, even when these traits don’t necessarily translate to effective leadership.

Join the conversation to learn how being a reflective leader who understands the interplay between leadership and followership fosters stronger teams and more effective leadership outcomes.

In this episode:

- The evolution of leadership and followership

- The importance of group movement

- Task-related leadership in early human societies

- Modern leadership selection process

- Lessons from a personal leadership experience

- Key takeaways and next leadership steps

Preorder Nicolas’ book “The Mammoth in the Room: https://mammothleadershipsciences.com/book/

Citations for this episode:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/essential-timeline-understanding-evolution-homo-sapiens-180976807/

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia —"hominin"— Encyclopedia Britannica, 17 Jul. 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/hominin. Accessed 22 August 2024.

What_we_know_about_leadership20160319-12231-175aore-libre.pdf (d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net)

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Richard-Ronay/publication/274471020_The_evolutionary_psychology_of_leadership_Theory_review_and_roadmap/links/572a748b08aef5d48d30ce1e/The-evolutionary-psychology-of-leadership-Theory-review-and-roadmap.pdf

Get in Touch:

Website: http://www.mammothleadershipsciences.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolaspokorny

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@MammothLeadershipSciences