Followership is the capacity or willingness to follow a leader. Followers can choose the extent to which they engage with and support a leader. The follower position is not static, and everyone is a follower at some point in their life. The determination of who leads and who follows is based on who has authority, who has expertise, and who needs information and guidance. Followers can be classified into groups based on their levels of assertiveness and independent thinking, which can be described as passive, conformist, alienated, exemplary, and pragmatist. The leader’s goal should be to engage a variety of follower types in workgroups and use multiple strategies to help all followers thrive. Followers can exert influence, sometimes in a toxic way, which can undermine the leader’s efforts and negatively impact organizational performance. Effective leaders have good self-management skills, they are committed to the organization; they are competent, and they demonstrate ethics, courage, honesty, discretion, and credibility. Followers can be of particular value to organizations when they share different perspectives and stand up for what is right, even if the leader does not.? LO857