What is the difference between a leader's role and a follower's role in followership?

What is the difference between a leader's role and a follower's role in followership?

• A. Leaders influence and guide; followers support, provide feedback, and exercise critical thinking; effective followership contributes to mission success.
• B. Followers are passive and do nothing; leaders do everything.
• C. Leaders are only administrators; followers are only doers.
• D. There is no distinction between leader and follower roles.

Answer: (C)

The idea being tested is that leadership and followership are interdependent roles, each bringing essential contributions to a team’s success. A leader guides and influences—setting direction, making decisions, and aligning people toward a shared goal. A follower engages actively by supporting that direction, offering feedback, asking clarifying questions, exercising critical thinking, and carrying out tasks to move the plan forward. Effective followership matters because it helps keep the mission on track, improves decisions through input, and enhances the team’s adaptability. The view that followers are passive and do nothing isn’t accurate, since engaged followers contribute ideas and energy to the effort. Leaders aren’t limited to administration; leadership is about guiding and motivating others, not merely performing administrative tasks. And there is a real distinction between the two roles, though they are complementary and work together toward the same objective.

The idea being tested is that leadership and followership are interdependent roles, each bringing essential contributions to a team’s success. A leader guides and influences—setting direction, making decisions, and aligning people toward a shared goal. A follower engages actively by supporting that direction, offering feedback, asking clarifying questions, exercising critical thinking, and carrying out tasks to move the plan forward. Effective followership matters because it helps keep the mission on track, improves decisions through input, and enhances the team’s adaptability.

The view that followers are passive and do nothing isn’t accurate, since engaged followers contribute ideas and energy to the effort. Leaders aren’t limited to administration; leadership is about guiding and motivating others, not merely performing administrative tasks. And there is a real distinction between the two roles, though they are complementary and work together toward the same objective.