Abbaraju Soujanya 

(2020PGP003 , Section –C) 

   

Review on the Article 

Research: To Be a Good Leader, Start By

Being a Good Follower
​By​ ​Kim Peters ​and​ Alex
Haslam

|| ​Summary​ ||
A common advice given to someone aspiring to be a leader is to behave like a
leader and not like a follower. He must show leadership traits such as
confidence, dominance to differentiate himself from his peers. However, in this
process the person compromises his leadership ability by showing his
exceptionalism. His effectiveness in engaging others decreases due to this. Too
much individualism hampers the success of leadership. The book titled ‘The
New Psychology of Leadership’ demonstrates this fact. The authors have said
that the relationship and similar status between the leader and his group
members are keys to achieve effective leadership. Hence, a leader must be seen
as ‘one of us’ by his peers, who is a keen follower of them. The test on Royal
Marines suggests that leader who is seen as a follower within his peer group is
more successful than the one who is seen as a potential leader by outsiders.
Often independent selection panels fail to choose an appropriate leader because
the selected person distances himself from his group, which stifles followers’
willingness to follow. It leads to organizational mediocrity.

|| ​Critical Review​ ||

Leadership is all about extracting the best out of the team members or peers. It
is associated with good relationship among the leader and his peers. Leader is
bound to work for his peers and listen to their concerns and opinions. This
article is quite relevant with respect to the current business scenarios in different
organizations as well as in social aspects. I would like to mention the pros and
cons of this article before giving my final opinion.
● Pros :

The authors have rightly mentioned that we mostly judge a leader

by his dominating and confident behaviour and appearance.

‘One piece of advice…​seen as a leader and ​not a follower​’ – this

sentence is very relevant when we try to advise someone about
leadership. Being the exception is not the goal of a leader but to
make his entire team work exceptionally is. This goal can only be
achieved through engaging team members and their collective
effort. This article raises this issue and describes its importance.

A Leader must zeal well with his peers to give them the feeling that
he is ‘​one of them’ ​and carefully share their values, concerns and
experiences so that they believe he is ​‘doing it for them’​. Only
then he receives the admiration of others in the team. Over the
years we have seen how top leaders like ​Jack Ma, Ratan Tata
have inspired many colleagues and persons in the same way.

The article mentions that the leader is successful when he follows

his peers. This enables him to know his peers better than others. At
the same time, he gets the support of his team members and
generates a good relationship with them. This is a key requirement
for a successful leader.

The authors support their argument by citing the results of the ​Test
on 218 Royal Marines. ​The results and data of the experiment
strengthens their viewpoint. The crux of this experiment was to
prove that outsiders evaluate ‘​leadership potential’ t​ hrough generic
ideas. However, evaluators within the group are in a better position
to judge the leadership of those who see themselves as leaders
which is contextually relevant to the group dynamics. To give an
example we can cite the rise of ​Natarajan Chandrasekharan ​as
Tata Sons Chairman starting his career from a trainee position in
TCS.

Choosing the right candidate for a leadership position is a difficult

job to do. Most of the recruiters fail to employ a sustainable
candidate because they look for the leadership qualities in a
candidate and not someone who see himself as a follower. They
ignore the team members’ willingness to follow the person and his
teamwork capabilities. Authors have conveyed their concern about
 the individualism and egoistic nature because they are ‘​best way to
get followers to fall out of love with the leader​’.

● Cons :

Authors have given too much importance on ‘​follower​’ attitude as

the building block of becoming a good leader. But, there are other
important characteristics such as ​integrity, decision making,
commitment, accountability etc. which also evolve a person to a
great leader. Authors have not mentioned any of these in the
article.

Apart from the Royal Marine experiment and one line mention of
the ‘The New Psychology of Leadership’ book, there is no other
evidence or facts given in the article in support of the argument
discussed. This reduces the concreteness of the authors’ view.

The article is too short and it mainly revolves around the

experiment and its results. The experiment takes the centre stage
and the conclusion is based on the findings of that experiment. But
Leadership traits differ according to contexts, circumstances and
work environment. So it is not appropriate to draw a generic
conclusion based on a single experiment. More diverse research
work and facts are required in support of the claim.

The authors have mentioned the flaws of the selection process of

leaders by independent selection panels. But they have not given
any feasible solution to the problem which would have been ideal
and have made the article more complete.

He has accused wrong leadership for the ‘​organizational

mediocrity​’. But that is not the sole reason of failure of an
organization. Sometimes external factors also play a part in the
downslide of an organization.

So, the theme of the article is very clear with some compelling sentences
followed by an experiment. The authors have raised a very relevant issue which
happens every day in business organizations. Though they have highlighted the
value of internal evaluation of a leader but no implementation of that idea is
shown. The article is short and crisp but it lacks depth. The overall explanation
is easily understandable and satisfactory.