Followership in Leadership
How walnut.coach helped Yakult — the iconic Japanese health and wellness company — explore the often-overlooked power of followership, challenge passive compliance culture, and build a more engaged, critically-thinking workforce.
Leaders Who Needed Better Followers
Yakult came to walnut.coach with a nuanced leadership challenge — one that most organisations rarely name directly: the quality of their followers was limiting the quality of their leaders.
Passive Followership Was Holding the Organisation Back
Teams had skilled leaders, but followers who defaulted to compliance, agreement, and passivity. This created groupthink, reduced critical thinking, and limited the quality of decisions.
Groupthink Was Prevalent
Conformist and passive followers were agreeing with group decisions without genuine critical input. The result: consensus that masked poor decision-making.
Followers Didn't See Their Power
Most employees didn't realise that as followers, they had real influence, could shape leaders' views, and could even substitute for a leader when needed.
The Leadership-Followership Link Was Misunderstood
The relationship between leader and follower was seen as a hierarchy, not a dynamic partnership. This needed to be reframed.
Leadership-Followership Workshop
An interactive workshop exploring what followership actually means, how it shapes leadership, and how exemplary followers create better organizations.
- Four people each do something out of the box
- Others invited to join them one by one
- Leaders then switch groups
- Explore what makes people follow
- Understand different degrees of difficulty in following
I walked in thinking this was a leadership program. I walked out realising I'd been a passive follower for years — and that changing that was the most powerful leadership move I could make.
What Changed After the Program
Participants left with a new understanding of their role, their power, and their responsibility to the organization's decision-making quality.
A New Language for Teams
Teams gained a shared vocabulary for followership types. Managers began having different conversations — actively seeking out Exemplary Followers and creating conditions for critical thinking.
Reduced Groupthink Risk
Participants became more aware of conformist and passive tendencies in themselves and began to actively counteract them. Meetings got healthier and more honest.
Followers Who Felt Empowered
Employees who had previously seen themselves as "just" contributors understood that their critical thinking and honest challenge was not just welcome — it was essential.
Stronger Team Energy & Morale
The program gave people a new way to see their value and contribution, leading to higher engagement, better communication, and more ownership over outcomes.
Ready to Build a Thriving Team?
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