I approached my local business school and asked if they would be interested in offering a course in followship. Yes, I mean "followship," not fellowship. The MBAs I interview for my consulting business are exceptional leaders; however, I need followers, not leaders, in my business.

Let me clarify: I don't want complacent people. And I do want my staff to challenge my ideas. However, there comes a time when a decision has to be made and since it is my name on the letterhead, I make the decision. Then, I need a good group of followers to implement my decisions.

However, in business school there isn't any course in being a follower. I think the closest they have is a class in teamwork. And they pretend that a small group of people can get things done, and done quickly, without a designated leader and the required remaining followers. Hog wash.

I'm willing to pay for quality followers. I am even willing to pay an extra premium to find them. However, business-school faculty, who are pretending everyone will be able to be a leader, are undermining my efforts.

The academics spend their lives (and our tax dollars) conducting research trying to understand whether leadership is a trait that is inborn or can it be learned. They develop complicated testing methodologies to measure one's leadership IQ and then sell the whole package to Fortune 500 companies.

Well, I have the same question about followers; however, no one wants to study this subject and develop a "followship IQ." My corporate human resource game plan is to never hire an MBA straight out of school. I look for someone with three to four years experience who has worked in one of those international mega-consulting organizations. After that humbling experience, he has learned through bitter experience that he's destined to be a follower.

So by the time I interview him, we can dispense with all the "servant-leader" mumbo-jumbo and deal with reality. I'm in charge; he isn't.

However, even after four years these new hirers still have vestiges of their leadership training. So I'm willing to endow a chair in "followship" at a local university.

I've actually checked the academic literature and there is no serious discussion on the role of the great followers in American business. For example who implemented Henry Ford's mass production plans for the model T? Ford obviously had to have a group of great followers because he seemed to have lots of time for his other interests like disseminating his reactionary views as the publisher of the Dearborn Independent.

And Bill Gates' first employees are today very happy to be followers. They've all retired as multi-millionaires. The few who thought they were leaders departed to start their own businesses. Now they must be content sitting in Starbucks in Seattle and dreaming of what might have been had they just been followers.

On a personal level, I've begun to speak publicly about the need for followers. I'm available for your employee retreat. Let me set the right tone as your keynote speaker.

My topic: Are you willing to risk you own money on this business? If not, sit down, shut up, and follow me.

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