A major challenge in being a leader is to recognize that followers differ substantially in talent and motivation. Similarly, a challenge in becoming an effective follower is to understand your basic approach to being a group member. There is a simply a typology that helps explain how followers differ from one another. At one end of the continuum is feeling and doing nothing. At the other end is being passionately committed and deeply involved.

Isolates are completely detached and passively support the status quo by not taking action to bring about changes. They do not care much about their leaders and just do their job without taking an interest in the overall organization. Isolates need coaching, yet sometimes firing them is the only solution.

Bystanders are free riders who are typically detached when it fits their self-interests. At a meeting, a bystander is more likely to focus on the refreshments and taking peeks at his or her personal text messages. Bystanders have low internal motivation, so the leader has to work hard to find the right motivators to spark the bystander into action.

Participants show enough engagement to invest some of their own time and money to make a difference, such as taking the initiative to learn new technology that would help the group. Participants are sometimes for, and sometimes against, the leader and the company. The leader has to review their work and attitudes carefully to determine whether or not the participant is being constructive.

Activists are considerably engaged, heavily invested in people and processes, and eager to demonstrate their support or opposition. They feel strongly, either positively or negatively, about their leader and the organization and act accordingly. An activist might be enthusiastic about reaching company goals, or so convinced that the company is doing the wrong thing that he or she blows the whistle. The leader has to stay aware of whether the activist is for or against the company.

Diehards are super-engaged to the point that they are willing to go down for their own cause, or willing to oust the leader if they feel he or she is headed in the wrong direction. Diehards can be an asset or a liability to the leader. Diehards have an even stronger tendency to be whistleblowers than do activists. Leaders have to stay in touch with diehards to see if their energy is being pointed in the service of the organization.

The categorization of followers highlights the challenging role of a leader. Not everybody in the group is eager to collaborate toward attaining organizational goals.