Definition of "followership" [followership]

• The act or condition of following a leader; adherence: "It was not a crisis of leadership. It was a crisis of followership” ( Christian Science Monitor). (noun)
• A group of followers; a following: "It is hard to have leadership when you have a divided followership” ( Joseph Badaracco). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Secrets of good "followership" - why you must be a good follower to be a good leader"
• "But the issue today is really one of followership - in other words, whether nations outside the U.S. would take their cue from New York City and Washington even if both those cities were inhabited by latter-day Solons."
• "Meanwhile, President Obama must deal with the inheritance from the past with fifth columnist "left-behinds" in every corner of his administration, not to mention a moronically strident Republican "followership" prattling the fevered imaginings of Boss Tweed Limbaugh and the rest of the naughty boys and girls on Fox, stirring up anger, fear, race hatred, and, yes, sedition."