Leadership Development: A Hierarchy of Followership Skills During a Crisis

Abstract

As organizations adapt to significant challenges, such as a pandemic and multiple generations entering the workplace, it is important to have followers who are team players and have skills for the new environment. Understanding and learning followership skills will be necessary for organizational effectiveness. We identified the following three major categories of followership skills and placed them into a hierarchy: Professional, Interpersonal, and Political. Each of these classifications has specific skill sets. A model is also offered as followers progress over time, learning these skills as they become leaders. The progression includes (1) Novice/Apprentice, (2) Team player, (3) Decision Maker, and (4) Leader/Manager.