The Leader-Follower-Identity Tracker (LFIT) – Develop as a leader from day to day

This interactive tool is designed to support you in developing as a leader. The LFIT helps you to reflect on and explore the complex day-to-day dynamics of being both a leader and a follower. By completing short daily reflections (3 min) over two to three weeks, you will learn what makes you feel more like a leader and more like a follower. You will also understand how flexible you are in moving between both leading and following.

How does the LFIT help me develop as a leader?

The LFIT helps you to understand when you feel like a leader and when you feel like a follower. As you understand the triggers that activate your leader and follower identities, you can look for situations that help you develop your leadership. You can also uncover these triggers together with other people (e.g., in your team) and give each other feedback. A detailed step-by-step guide and application examples on the LFIT can be found in Nieberle et al., (2024).

Whether you're an individual seeking to understand your personal leadership experience or a team aiming for collaborative leadership, LFIT is here to support you in reflecting on and exploring your journey. Use the LFIG to learn…

  • Your General Identity and Equilibrium: How much do I feel like a leader, and how much like a follower in general? How much do I feel in-between being a leader and a follower (i.e., leader- follower identity liminality)?

  • Your Day-to-Day identity Dynamics: How much are my leader and follower identities changing from day to day? How often do I switch between being a leader and a follower?

  • Your Daily Events: What type of important daily events do I experience, and how strong are these events? How do these events map to my leader-follower identity trajectory?

What do I need to do?

The LFIT comes in two interactive apps. The first part, the LFIT-Reflector, prompts you to engage in short daily reflections on events and your identity across a period of time. We recommend these short daily reflections for two or three consecutive weeks. The second part, the LFIT-Reporter, allows you to download a PDF report on your tracked experiences and leader-follower identity trajectories over the specified period of time.

 

Please cite as:

Nieberle, K. W., Acton, B. P., Fu, Y. A., Lord, R. G., & Braun, S. (2024). Lead Today, Follow Tomorrow? How to Manage the Ebb and Flow of Leader and Follower Identities. In S. Braun, T. Hansbrough, G. A. Ruark, R. G. Lord, R. J. Hall & O. Epitropaki (Eds.), Navigating Leadership: Evidence-Based Strategies for Leadership Development (pp. 9-35). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003377450

Click on app below

We would like to thank multiple supporters on this application including the Centre for Leadership and Followership at Durham University, and Ian Ziskin for his additional support for this web application.