Losing the soul of leadership and followership

Losing the soul of leadership and followership happens when dishonesty prevails. Integrity disappears, and destructive behaviors accelerate. Leaders and followers have a responsibility to each other. Honesty and integrity are the soul of good leadership.

Leaders and followers have a critical relationship. Each holds another accountable for their actions and inaction. The traits of leaders and followers reinforce a meaningful and ethical relationship. An essential trait is integrity. Honesty is embedded in integrity. While integrity requires alignment between words and actions, honesty is being truthful. Trust is an outcome, as is mutual accountability.

Integrity is the soul of leading and following.

Honesty is a virtue. Integrity is a result.

Many leadership skills can be taught, learned, and developed through time and experience. However, honesty is a choice. Honesty is either embraced or disregarded. Honesty cannot be taught, but it is an essential leadership and followership trait. With dishonesty, integrity fails, and trust evaporates.

Followers can impact the integrity of a leader, just as leaders can sway the integrity of followers.

Followers are responsible for holding leaders accountable when untruthful statements are made, or fraudulent actions are taken. When followers do not demand accountability, a leader is emboldened to undertake more significant lies or fraudulent activities. Likewise, when leaders skip accountability checks on followers, they take note and accelerate negative behaviors. The results:

  • Workplaces become toxic.

  • Society deteriorates.

Politics opens a window into our leadership and followership soul.

A fair, accurate, secure, and complete presidential election occurred in 2020. Two statements:

  • "I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former President's crusade to undermine our democracy." ~ Representative Liz Cheney

  • "President Trump won this election, so everyone who's listening, do not be quiet." ~ House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy

Given the two above statements, what action would you take as a leader or as a follower?

Rep. Cheney challenged the untruths from the current minority leader and a former president. She is playing an accountability role, maintaining integrity and honesty. As a consequence, she was ousted from her House GOP leadership position. "We must go forward based on truth," Rep. Cheney told reporters after the voice vote. "We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the Constitution."

Meanwhile, the minority leader enables the lie from a former president.

Who would you follow? Which leader is a better example?

A return to leadership traits that build trust.

Leaders and followers must have integrity. Virtues need to return to our responsibilities within the ecosystem of our organizations and society. Honesty is imperative. Without it, we lose our integrity, trust, and ethics. Worse, we lose our soul.


References

Gerhart, A. (2020, December 9). Trump's challenges to election results: What they are and what could happen. The Washington Post.

Herb, J., & Grayer, A. (2021, May 11). Liz Cheney strikes defiant tone in floor speech on eve of her expected ousting from House GOP leadership. CNN.

Kirkpatick, S. A., & Locke, E. A. (1991). Leadership: Do traits matter? Academy of Management Perspectives, 5(2), 48–60. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1991.4274679

Matthews, S. H., Kelemen, T. K., & Bolino, M. C. (2021). How follower traits and cultural values influence the effects of leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 32, 101497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2021.101497

Vlamis, K. (2020, November 6). Kevin McCarthy echoed Trump's false claim that he won the election, saying Republicans "will not back down." Business Insider.

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