The romance of the followe: part 3

Purpose In the first two papers, the authors provided an overview of the research on followship and then presented a new model that extends understanding of it. This paper illustrates how the followship model can be used effectively to enhance organizations through coaching, mentoring, organizational change (enterprise‐wide reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions), high performer development, executive retention, new hire on‐boarding, leader development, and also in designing HR tools for performance management. Design/methodology/approach This is a capstone article. As such, it summarizes key points made previously, discusses existing HR practices and how they can be improved, incorporates case studies on followship, and illustrates practical applications. Findings Leaders must learn to model followship, and use it to solve staff performance issues. HR departments should include followship training to enrich development planning and, in the case of enterprise‐wide change such as mergers and acquisitions, speed and improve the results. Finally, providing followship training helps prevent executive derailment, improves Gen Y integration, and enhances the opportunities for high performers' career development. Originality/value This third and final article shows practical applications of ideas followship brings to organizational development. As such, it will be interesting to senior executives, high performance talent managers, executive coaches, and HR departments.