There is a relationship between leading and following. We all have bosses who we are accountable to. Even President Obama is accountable to someone—the American People. Sometimes I see very senior leaders in the public space being very good leaders, but not so good on the followership. Generally being a follower means that you must be able to accept direction from someone else.
General Douglas McArthur was a very talented military leader who forgot that he was still accountable to someone—President Truman. His military career ended with his firing from his command in Korea. For us as emergency managers we generally would accept that we are subject to the direction from our senior appointed and political leaders. While we will be graded on our leadership, I wonder what our score would be for “followership” if there was such a score card?
