Global Followership Conference

While followership research is increasingly becoming popular, its literature is thinly dispersed, making it difficult to find. Thus, Virginia Tech, through a mini-grant and two years of research, is building a digital followership collection with the goal of supporting and advancing the field. This session will introduce participants to the platform, share its potential benefits across contexts, and demonstrate the prospect of artificial intelligence for sustaining the field of followership.

This interactive workshop explores the often-overlooked concept of Followership through the lens of empowerment and self-awareness. Participants will learn to cultivate effective followership using tools designed to deepen personal insight and foster organizational health. Coaches, trainers, leaders, and individuals seeking to develop a stronger sense of empowerment and purpose will benefit from this session. Key takeaways include understanding the language of empowerment and creating the self-awareness necessary for both leaders and followers to thrive. Participants will engage in live exercises, small-group discussions, personal reflection exercises, and real-life stories and scenarios to demonstrate principles and spark dialogue. Attendees will gain practical strategies they can immediately apply in their roles and organizations.

The Behavior-Motive Matrix© offers a groundbreaking approach to understanding and addressing follower behaviors in the workplace. By categorizing actions as conscious or subconscious and identifying whether followers exhibit deficient or defiant tendencies, this framework empowers leaders to support growth and accountability among their teams. Attendees will explore strategies to help followers recognize gaps in awareness, build necessary skills, and align their behaviors with team and organizational goals. This session highlights how leaders can foster a culture of self-awareness and development, ensuring followers are equipped to contribute meaningfully and navigate challenges with purpose and confidence.

A key challenge in shifting attitudes toward followership is the language we use to describe it. Almost all of the attendees at the Fourth Global Followership Conference have experienced negative blowback about our own “F-Word”. Unless we can articulate the value of followership in fundamentally different ways that are clear, compelling, and resonant, our effectiveness as change agents will remain limited. To address this challenge, we must develop language that counters the negative perceptions of followership—passivity, weakness, conformity, and more. In this workshop, Gloria Williams and Tim Hurson will guide participants through dynamic, hands-on activities designed to spark insights, generate actionable ideas, and draft first-pass ‘scripts’ for productive conversations about followership. By the end of the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to refine and test engaging, connection-rich discussions that highlight the tangible benefits of adopting a followership stance.