There are over 8,000 books written on the subject of leadership. There are less than 10 on followership. The military understands that before one can become a leader one needs to know how to follow, but corporate America still has not figured this one out.
How you follow has big implications for how you lead. And followership is one of the most critical factors in getting an organization aligned, yet corporate leaders find it difficult to discuss because it might be perceived as self serving. In this one-of-a-kind leadership keynote, Dr. Curphy tackles this topic in a fun, but potent way. The leadership keynote opens with engaging stories about the four types of followers: The self-starter, yes person, slacker, and criticizer.
He describes the two dimensions of followership: critical thinking and involvement and then takes a deep dive into each type:
- Self starters: critical thinkers and high involvement: A players
- Yes people: uncritical thinkers and high involvement: Loyal lapdogs
- Slackers: uncritical thinkers and low involvement: Stealth employees
- Criticizers: critical thinkers and low involvement: Whiners of first resort.
Dr. Curphy's leadership keynote describes the underlying psychological issues with each of the four follower types and what leaders need to effectively manage each type and create teams of self-starters. He describes how people change their followership type-based on how they are led. In a very personal, engaging style Dr. Curphy's leadership keynote talks about his own followership style and how it has changed over time.
The keynote wraps up with a challenge to leaders to look at their teams, where people are at, and how they are performing as leaders. He challenges followers as well – but in the end, it’s all up to them to follow and lead to their highest potential.
Add-on services
Rather than a mere keynote speech and PowerPoint, this particular leadership keynote can be highly interactive. A handout that describes the two followership dimensions; the four followership types; the underlying psychological issues and recommended actions for managing each follower type; and a graph for plotting direct reports against the four followership types. This handout also allows participants to plot how their own followership style has changed over time. This is priced at $50/participant and adds 20 minutes to the leadership keynote presentation. |