Followers’ Basic Needs

This is the fourth in a series of five posts from a book review of Strengths-Based Leadership by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie.

In leadership development, researchers often only focus on the leaders to the exclusion of the other half of that equation: followers. These authors contributed to the original work of Donald Clifton by considering that followers had four basic needs:

1. Trust: Followers want leaders who tell the truth and do what they say they will do.

2. Compassion: Followers want leaders who care about them as individual people.

3. Stability: Followers want leaders who provide stability and security at work.

4. Hope: Followers want leaders who give them a sense of direction and hope in the future.