Developing Leaders: Just Don’t Forget About the Followers!

Prior research has presented the positive effects of leadership training programs, but the knowledge of how these types of programs affect organizational followers is limited. Here, we expand on conclusions from a study that explored how organizational followers perceive leadership change and present a practical guide for organizations that use leader rotations as a leadership development strategy. This practical guide is built on four distinct themes offered by the organizational follower: leader expectations and engagement, organizational culture, communication, and consistency. Our findings reveal how the organizational follower perceives leadership change while offering insight into how to combat this practice's perceived negative influence on the followers within an organization. By acknowledging the advice given here, the global organization may reduce the adverse effects the organizational followers feel when subjected to frequent leader changes while still developing their future leaders' skills.