Part 1:

Followership might be the most important underrated content of this 7 week session.

Everyone always talks about the star point guard who won the game by shooting from the edge

of the key because he was open, but we forgot about the teammate who set up that perfectly

timed screen to let the team captain get open for that shot. I think sports are a very easy way to

see this relationship. I had run track as an opener or an anchor depending on some factors, both

would be considered a leadership style position and I was the captain of the team and specifically

that relay. In the anchor position, it is beyond important for the other legs of the relay to be able

to push themselves as well to get the anchor in a position to finish out as strong as possible.

Everyone always talks about the guy who crosses the finish line for the team but without a good

second or third-leg victory could be seconds out of reach.

Another example from my life involves being a follower, I was an assistant chef, and

from the outside looking in in service it could sound and look like grunt work or having an

ungrateful boss with how the head chef would speak to the others during food service. To me, I

just assumed that a please and thank you was implied when she would be barking orders from

across the room because without the other chef's assistance( the followers) the meal would not be

completed nearly as nicely or on time, it was a truly symbiotic relationship. I am a great cook

today in my own right even though it is not how I make money because of the teachings of the

head chef and how she would take time to show me things that only years and experience had

taught her, her having a good assistant chef that could accompany her and maneuver around the

kitchen was priceless.

 I wanted to use those two examples specifically because they were overlapping times

where I was not just a leader but also a follower and had great success in both, we made it to

state as a relay team a first in 6 years for that event at the time, and our kitchen satisfaction

surveys were the highest for that company across the country by margins, I still use both

experiences in my daily life.

Part 2:

1. Does your work help you fulfill some societal goal or personal dream that is important to you?

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2. Are your personal work goals aligned with the organization’s priority goals? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

3. Are you highly committed to and energized by your work and organization, giving them your

best ideas and performance? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

4. Does your enthusiasm also spread to and energize your coworkers? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

5. Instead of waiting for or merely accepting what the leader tells you, do you personally

identify which organizational activities are most critical for achieving the organization’s priority

goals? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

6. Do you actively develop a distinctive competence in those critical activities so that you

become more valuable to the leader and the organization? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

7. When starting a new job or assignment, do you promptly build a record of successes in tasks

that are important to the leader? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

8. Can the leader give you a difficult assignment without the benefit of much supervision,

knowing that you will meet your deadline with highest-quality work and that you will “fill in the

cracks” if need be? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

9. Do you take the initiative to seek out and successfully complete assignments that go above

and beyond your job? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

10. When you are not the leader of a group project, do you still contribute at a high level, often

doing more than your share? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

11. Do you independently think up and champion new ideas that will contribute significantly to

the leader’s or the organization’s goals? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

12. Do you try to solve the tough problems (technical or organizational), rather than look to the

leader to do it for you? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

13. Do you help out other coworkers, making them look good, even when you don’t get any

credit? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

14. Do you help the leader or group see both the upside potential and downside risks of ideas or

plans, playing the devil’s advocate if need be? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

15. Do you understand the leader’s needs, goals, and constraints, and work hard to help meet

them? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

16. Do you actively and honestly own up to your strengths and weaknesses rather than put off

evaluation? 0 1 2 3 4 56

17. Do you make a habit of internally questioning the wisdom of the leader’s decision rather than

just doing what you are told? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

18. When the leader asks you to do something that runs contrary to your professional or personal

preferences, do you say “no” rather than “yes”? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

19. Do you act on your own ethical standards rather than the leader’s or the group’s standards? 0

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20. Do you assert your views on important issues, even though it might mean conflict with your

group or reprisals from the leader? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Independant Score: 35

Active Score: 2: 48

It seems as if I am not in a hard set category, not too surprised on these types of tests. I know that

I can be a good follower but my own morals and ethics kind of conflict sometimes with my work

since I am a recruiter and I have strong beliefs of how the hiring process here can be overhauled

for the betterment of our employees, recruiters, and the clients we serve. Even though I can get a

little fed up with my job I do try to motivate people as best as I can and never miss a team

building conversation when presented. I have great leaders at work and I trust them to know me

and my life as an open book just about.

I love this question because the whole world has changed very recently in this regard thanks to

the covid response. I have been with my company since we were 100% in-office and have since

transitioned over the years to 100% remote. I think we got really lucky since we are in Kansas

City and we had a giant ice storm that was affecting people’s ability to get to the office and was

hurting our peak season numbers so the company bought every sales agent a second set of

workstation for their home, and then a month later the world shut down for covid. Its complete

hindsight but we got lucky as a technology company who is publicly traded we should have been

an early adopter of this transition and we have. Leaders have had to step up their level of
communication so much more since we have gone remote, it is more difficult for a lot of styles

of leadership when you no longer see your leaders in person. It seems like we no longer have a

lot of servant leadership, the lines of responsibility are more drawn and they have more direct

responses to their leaders needing completing. It may be hard to learn more about our authentic

leaders since there is less watercooler talk in a virtual world, unless you directly privately bring

up an issue you may never really speak to management about an issue. I do feel like gender lines

in leadership have completely disappeared with everyone being remote and getting messages

from a chat bubble as opposed to an in-person leader/manager. All in all, communication has

gone up in a way and down in a way and we are all still adjusting to the new style of the

workplace but to me, as I type this in sweatpants, I am okay with that