What does leadership look like in the modern age?

In The Followership Game, entrepreneur Natalie Campbell investigates our modern obsession with leadership. As organisations become flatter and less hierarchical, and the influence of social media swells, leadership roles are becoming more ambiguous. So how is our idea of leadership changing, and what does it mean to be a follower?

Leadership has changed. As Natalie states, “we’re in an era where we distrust institutions and traditional authority figures more and more”. Dr Benjamin Voyer, a behavioural psychologist, addresses the growing skepticism surrounding politicians. He says religious beliefs have also widely lost their appeal so “religious leaders, which also used to be the obvious leaders for many, do not carry the same weight as they used to.”

As traditional authority figures lose their sheen, a new type of leader is emerging. Benjamin Voyer says a new generation is looking to “micro-leaders”.

Micro-leaders are seen by their followers “as influential for the very lifestyle that they aspire to” either in the community, or on Instagram, or both. These aren’t just celebrities, but people and friends we admire and who reflect our own identities. A micro-leader could be a vegan activist, a yoga fan, or a middle-aged woman who has rejoined the workforce. He says, “these days we see leaders as people we have some sort of a personal connection with and that match as closely as possible” the “ideal identity that we aspire to.” Leaders are no longer just about taking us somewhere, but “can also help us overcome the difficulties we have in our everyday life.”

The result is that “rather than having the big role models and the big leaders that we had even twenty years ago, now the landscape of leaders and role models is much more fragmented.”

The gender and ethnicity of leaders is in question too. Dr Connson Locke is a Senior lecturer at the London School of Economics and she says “we’ve created a prototype in our minds of what we think a leader looks like” but this is “based on the past, it’s based on the media, it’s based on the movies” – so it’s not surprising that this leader prototype is predominantly male, white, heterosexual and able-bodied.

The role of social media is helping us to challenge these traditional views. Munroe Bergdorf is an activist, model and micro-leader who has used social media to build up a large following. This has given her power and influence in the fashion industry – which as a young, black, trans woman, she wasn’t traditionally able to achieve.

Being a leader on social media can also be unpredictable. Munroe Bergdorf resigned from her post as an advisor to the Labour Party due to comments she has made on social media in the past, and one comment cost her a lucrative modeling job with L’Oreal.

“People can emerge very quickly on social media and rise to prominence but they can also disappear very quickly”, says Benjamin Voyer. Social media is “all about instant things but not necessarily continuity.”

Dr Voyer believes social media may make us “reshape what attributes we give to leaders”, with empathy becoming more important “because this is something that we see a lot on social media.” On these online platforms, you have to display empathy and be able to connect with people “otherwise if you don’t as a leader… you’re losing all your followers.”

Elizabeth Samet has taught at the United States Military Academy for twenty years. She believes that although social media might have contributed to a “flatter world”, and an organizational or cultural structure that’s less hierarchical and more democratic, it has also brought to the fore a particular type of leadership style: “I do think we are easily seduced by the loudest, the flashiest, the most cosmetically appealing and that as a result of that we are suspicious of people who seem not to be reacting immediately, not to be shouting the loudest.”

She says we are suspicious of politicians who change their mind, viewing it as “flip-flopping”, rather than a “symptom of evolution of thought and growth.” Leaders who bombard us repeatedly with the same thought and who are surrounded by crisis – rather than averting it – are the ones we hear.

Dance partners Fides Matzdorf and Ramen Sen have co-authored a paper on what leaders can learn from dance. Fides says leading is “not dominant in the sense of domineering – it’s inviting. Not controlling.” She says we have “come a long way” from the time when the lady just followed and looked pretty. Now, “leaders and followers are partners” and “leaders are also followers.” In same sex dancing, leaders and followers are actually allowed to change their roles.

Followers have more power in ballroom dancing, and the same applies to social media. These days, Natalie says, followers are able to “feel much closer and much more connected to the people they follow: they can talk to them; they can interact.”

When Munroe Bergdorf’s words were used against her, it was one of her followers who started the “#IStandWithMunroe” movement that garnered the model media coverage and the platform to tell her side of the story. In this instance, the follower became the leader – perhaps something we will see happening more and more.