Zahira Jasser - What is followership?

The Future Talent Learning Podcast

Access the podcast transcript here.

Episode Summary

What is followership? And why is it important for leaders? To answer these questions, Ross G and Ross D are joined by Dr Zahira Jasser, Assistant Professor at the University of Sussex Business School, who worked in the financial sector as a banker, manager and consultant before entering academia. We discuss:

• The need to focus on ‘followership’ as much as ‘leadership’
• Four types of ‘follower’
• How followers influence leaders.

Episode Timestamps

• Introduction - 00:00-00:37
• The traditional heroic view of leadership is limited – 00:37-09:53
• Followership is an active, empowered role – 09:53-20:08
• Connecting leaders use practices like being a Janus – 20:08-24:08
• Other practices include being a broker – 24:08-27:28
• And a conduit – 27:28-29:32
• As well as a tightrope walker – 29:32-34:38
• Wrap up – 34:38-36:44
• One thing I learned this week – 36:44-43:21

Additional Information

Zahira’s Harvard Business Review article on this topic was ‘The Real Value of Middle Managers’, online at: https://hbr.org/2021/06/the-real-value-of-middle-managers

You can find Zahira on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/ZahiraJaser

In ‘One Thing I’ve Learned This Week’, Ross D recommended Nate Silver’s book The Signal and the Noise, and specifically how the ‘Super Bowl Indicator’ is correlated with the stock market’s performance. You can find the book at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/305826/the-signal-and-the-noise-by-nate-silver/

Zahira recommended A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management Theory, by Todd Bridgman and Stephen Cummings: https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/a-very-short-fairly-interesting-and-reasonably-cheap-book-about-management-theory/book268894

And Ross G shared an extract from the book Letters of Note, which you can find online at: https://lettersofnote.com/