Leaders need followers – a fact that is self-evident but often forgotten. Anyone who has been in a leadership position knows that it can be difficult to assess how much support they have among their followers. Followers can be fickle and tentative in their support; and many a policy or initiative has failed because a leader has confused silence with acceptance.
In assessing support for a program or change, it is useful to think of followers in one of five categories (as adapted from Jeswald W. Salacuse):
- Champions are enthusiastic and fully committed to your plan. They are emotionally invested in its success. You can count on them during implementation.
- Allies offer qualified and conditional support for your plan. Though they may dislike some features of your plan, they feel that overall it’s good enough to support and move forward with. Talking with them about their reservations may improve your plan or at times convert them into Champions.
- Passives won’t oppose your plan but at the same time feel no genuine commitment to it. During implementation, they’ll work to achieve its aims if it’s in their self-interest and there’s little risk attached to doing so. They may turn into Opponents or Spoilers if your plan runs into difficulties during implementation.
- Opponents are openly against your plan. Their support during implementation may be problematical: they will only do what they are compelled to do and they may not do it well or on time.
- Spoilers may not openly oppose your plan, but they won’t miss an opportunity to weaken or destroy it. They often act as roadblocks and choke points during implementation of a plan. They are potentially more damaging than Opponents.
Leaders with emotional and social intelligence know that agreement to a plan isn’t the same thing as an enthusiastic commitment to it. Followers who express their reservations about a plan – typically Allies and Opponents – are actually easier to work with than those who keep their true feelings hidden. With followers in general – and Passives and Spoilers in particular – it is important to look at their non-verbal communication when assessing their support for a plan. Often body language or the absence of action or speech reveals their true feelings.
