Column Title: Leadership Life Stories: Communicating and Leading through Your Story
Column Entry: “The First Lesson Wasn’t Leadership”
By Chris Hamstra, PhD, Davenport University
Description: There is a power when people come together to share stories. As people of faith, the practice and process of storytelling helps us understand ourselves, our communities, and our organizations. When combined with leadership, stories provide examples of how to serve authentically. This column brings people around the virtual campfire to explore the concept of leadership life stories and how to learn to engage people in the classroom and boardroom with wit and wisdom.
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Since the publication of In Their Steps,[i] I’ve gone back to reflect on many of the ideas in the book. Those of you who published before probably know the feeling that the conversation continues long after the date of publication!
One gradual development for me is an interest in followership. The more I study communication centered leadership, the more I find myself wondering if we need to learn about following before learning to lead.
A few months ago, at a faith-based conference, I asked why the church does not talk about followership? The pastor’s reply surprised me, “In our churches we take the next step. People of faith are not just followers. We are disciples of Jesus.”
I’ve been rereading Matthew 4:18-22 and the first disciples. Jesus calls these men not only follow, but also to be in a relationship with him as disciples. I wonder how we can use some of these principles as we integrate faith in our learning environments?
Calling Individuals: Followers and Disciples
It is interesting in Matthew 4:19 when Jesus walks beside the Sea of Galilee, his first communication is to “Come, follow me,” (v. 19). Before Peter and Andrew and then James and John became leaders in the early church, even before they are disciples, these individuals followed. The soon-to-be disciples are invited into a relationship with Jesus.
The response for both sets of disciples is neat. Peter and Andrew “At once left their nets and followed him” (v. 20). James and John “immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him” (v. 22). How are we inviting our learners into the in-person or online environments and saying “Follow me?” In my first-year COMM class I get to the classroom early for conversation. Online, I actively reach out through email for any questions and help navigating Blackboard. What steps do you take to encourage following?
What does a follower actually do?
Ira Chaleff is a leader in the followership world. Specifically focused more on organizations, he outlines several courage’s to explain his model in The Courageous Follower.[ii] The Courage to Listen to Followers seems to be most relevant to us as communication practitioners/scholars. Specifically, inviting creative challenge is the most important to me. Chaleff suggests that this step is a proactive mode of operating so that “…ideas are continuously sought, encouraged, developed, examined, challenged, modified, synthesized, and adopted or discarded.”[iii]
Last semester a learner stayed after class to ask whether a persuasive speech about atheism would be acceptable. He seemed genuinely surprised when I encouraged him to pursue the topic. His speech had very little about rejecting faith and more of previous church hurt. Growing up he shared his doubts and tough questions. His genuine confusion was never addressed and he was personally minimized for even asking. Sometimes faithful communication begins by creating enough safety for people to ask honest questions. I have already reached out to him with the hope that we can have lunch before the Fall semester begins.
Celebrating Human Beings
Walter Fisher[iv] reminds us that humans are essentially storytellers. Humans experience life through stories. We learn by telling our stories AND by listening to and entering the stories of those around us. Maybe faithful followership begins with a willingness to listen first?
This past year I’ve participated in several story events in the West Michigan area and even a Moth StorySLAM in Detroit. The powerful moments for me are listening to the joys and struggles, mountain top and valley experiences of nine other storytellers in the room. Each time I listen to my friend Eileen I’ve cried or laughed WITH her experiences and I see others in the room doing the same.
Learning to Follow and be a Disciple
Let me wrap up with a few suggestions as we help our students learn to follow well before asking them to lead
Excited Invitations: A seemingly simple step. I work with many student-athletes and have a wonderful opportunity to show that they are already using communication scholarship on the playing field. After a 30-minute exercise about eye contact in non-verbal communication, I had a defensive cornerback from the football team share that his two interceptions during the weekend win came directly from class. He explained that he focused on the Quarterbacks eyes and knew where the play was going. What do you do that helps students make the connection from the classroom to life?
A Spaces with humility and authority. Now this one may be a little tougher. I’m intentional about including humility first because I realize the longer I walk the path of life, the less I really know. My excitement at the beginning of each semester is wondering what else I can learn from this group, in this class, today. I balance this with the authority as a faculty member and someone who has been in the learning environment for over 20 years. How about you? How do you balance these two elements in class?
I’d like to continue exploring these thoughts. If In Their Steps examined what we can learn from the disciples as leaders, perhaps the next conversations are what we can learn from them as followers and disciples. Before Peter and Andrew, James and John were leaders and disciples, they each learned to answer two simple words from Jesus:
“Follow me.”
Notes
[i] Chris Hamstra, In Their Steps (Pasco, WA. Integratio Press, 2026).
[ii] Ira Chaleff, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To & For Our Leaders (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009).
[iii] Chaleff, Courageous Follower, 218.
[iv] Walter Fisher, Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1989).