These days, talk of leadership is everywhere. We can’t get enough of it. Leadership in business, leadership in teams, leadership in organizations, leadership at home. Everyone, it seems, wants to know how to be a leader.

It’s the ultimate goal for the career-oriented individual. To become a thought leader, it seems, is the surest way to the top in a world where career paths are dead. And to become an organizational leader may be the next best thing, in the places where hierarchy still exist.

But there’s a flipside to the concept of leadership that its very essence demands. Leadership demands followers. Some of the most important quotes about leadership frame it exclusively in the concept of followship. All of the best definitions do.

But guess what? There doesn’t seem to be much buzz about being a good follower. There are over 25 times as many books on leadership as there are on followship. A Google search reveals 43,300 hits for that term, while leadership gets a whopping 174,000,000. In fact, followship isn’t even a defined word.

In fact, most everything written on followship focuses on one niche – spirituality. This makes sense when you consider that most spiritual people consider being a follower of a person, an organization or system of beliefs to be a critical part of their lives.

That said, there are still profoundly more things written even in this niche about leadership than followship. And hardly any literature at all focuses on followship in the workplace, at home, in our personal lives, and in our careers.

This might be because in our independent society, we don’t really care about what it takes to be a good follower. In fact, most of the time, the idea of being a follower is framed negatively. How many times have you seen people be rewarded for excellent followship? A highly lauded episode in last season’s 30 Rock showed Tina Fey’s character ashamedly receiving a followship award. Liz Lemon lamented that the $10,000 prize didn’t highlight her leadership instead. And most of us would probably feel the same in a similar situation.

We seem to think, collectively, functionally, that followers are just blind sheep, and though we may not say it out loud, it’s in the tone of our voice and the look in our eye when we say the word. Say it out loud, in a sentence, and listen to how you sound. “She’s a follower.”

Let’s just be honest, most of us think that “followers” just aren’t thoughtful, creative, ambitious, capable or admirable.

And that’s a problem. Because that’s simply not true. In fact, being a good follower is just as challenging, admirable and important a capability as leadership.

We extol the virtue of leadership so much, we’ve even had to create terms like self-leadership in order to make followship more palatable. Don’t get me wrong, I think leadership is a valuable attribute, and I truly believe every person has areas of their life in which they are called to be leaders. And self-leadership is a great concept, too, especially if it’s helping people realize the value of knowing how to follow. Because no matter how much of a leader you are, every person can benefit from being a world-class follower.

The truth is, you can’t really be a good leader unless you can be a good follower first. That’s because great leaders put other people’s success ahead of their own goals. They add value to people. They reject the idea that they must take down everyone in their path. They build relationships that are mutually beneficial and based on respect and authenticity. And they don’t just know how to do these things, they practice them by practicing great followship.

Whether it’s following a system to help you work better, seeking out a mentor within your field or industry, following the advice of parents or experts, or putting yourself as a leader under the authority of other successful people, followship can make you a better business owner, employee, friend, advocate, mentor, student – and leader.

Reject the idea that only leadership is admirable. Find the power in the art of followship. It’s time.

Is leadership all it’s cracked up to be? Not sure what I mean by followship? Let’s talk. Want more? Read over 15 responses to this post syndicated on the Brazen Careerist network.