Abstract
Followership research is scarce across the literature today, and more so from followers' voices. In terms of typologies, one known study from the follower perspective outlines
three types of behaviors: passive, active, and proactive. Research shows proactive
followership behaviors influence organizational outcomes positively. I sought to uncover
how proactive followers influence organizational outcomes by co-creating the leadership
process through a qualitative descriptive design. The research question, “What behaviors
or techniques do proactive followers use to co-create leadership?” served as the guide
through interviews with three leaders and proactive followers as individuals and within
their dyad. I identified nine themes and thirty-one subthemes through content and
thematic analysis of the three data sets. The discussion and resulting proposed solution
focus on the dyad themes as they weave data from all the interviews together and focus
on the intersection between the leader and follower, supporting the co-creation of
leadership process: 1) reciprocity across the relationship, 2) interstice of autonomy, and
3) ownership of behaviors. Followership development within leadership and frontline
training in organizations is essential to allowing proactive followers to step into their
natural behaviors, developing additional proactive followers within organizations, and
creating a dyadic relationship between leaders and followers that helps these behaviors to
flourish, positively impacting organizational outcomes.
Keywords: follower, followership, proactive followership, co-created leadership,
reciprocity across relationships, interstice of autonomy, ownership of behaviors