‘Followership’ key to leadership for 90 new SNCOs

Published Oct. 28, 2011
By Mike W. Ray
Tinker Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- The word 'followership' "not only doesn't have eight or nine or 10 definitions, it isn't even in the dictionary," Chief Master Sgt. Kevin G. Slater noted during the recent Joint Senior Noncommissioned Officer Induction Banquet at Tinker Air Force Base. Nevertheless, "No good leader accomplishes anything without good followership."

As the command chief master sergeant for the 24th Air Force, Chief Slater is the senior enlisted leader responsible for the professional development, military readiness, and mission effectiveness of enlisted personnel assigned to three wings at Lackland AFB, Texas, and Robins AFB, Ga.

Calling someone a good leader is a compliment. "But if you were to congratulate someone for being a good follower, they would take it as a slam and assume you were looking down on them," Chief Slater said. However, he asserted, "It's much more difficult to be a follower than to be a leader."

As senior noncommissioned officers, he told the 91 Tinker Air Force Base inductees, "Both roles will be required of you."

Once a leader makes a decision, "the best follower takes ownership of that decision as though it was his own," the chief said. "This is loyalty."

A good follower "displays initiative, provides constructive criticism, asks questions, and accepts accountability and responsibility for the results." High standards are "worthless" without accountability and enforcement, he said.

If problems subsequently arise because of a leader's decision, a good follower "brings a proposed course of action" to resolve the dilemma. Moreover, a good follower who disagrees with his or her leader's decision "will champion that decision in public and critique it in private."

The chief said that when he was elevated to senior NCO, his supervisor told him, "I've got your back. I will not throw you under the bus. I will always support your decision, even if I don't agree with it, so long as it's not illegal, immoral or unethical."

Chief Slater said the new senior noncommissioned officers will serve three principal functions:

· "We're here to influence our world."

· "You have an impressive leadership role, but an even more important followership role."

· "Your leadership role is to provide the fuel to the real leaders in the Air Force -- the tech sergeants and master sergeants."

Chief Slater told the Tinker inductees that their advancement into the ranks of senior NCOs was "daunting," and he advised them to "watch and listen, not only to your leaders but to your subordinates," as well.

"Our core values set the tone for what we are as Airmen and citizens," he said.

"Not just anyone can do what we do. Being an American Airman requires teamwork, putting yourself second to the team."

Every U.S. Airman has "a purpose, not a job," the chief said. "Although my alarm clock wakes me up, it doesn't make me jump out of bed. What does is a sense of purpose."