The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2017 47 You Are Our Eyes & Ears! Dear Readers: In order to produce a high-quality product, the FSJ depends on the revenue it earns from advertising. You can help with this. Please let us know the names of companies that have provided good service to you — a hotel, insurance company, auto dealership, or other concern. A referral from our readers is the best entrée! Ed Miltenberger Advertising & Circulation Manager Tel: (202) 944-5507 Email: miltenberger@afsa.org Another application of the followership principle lies in rework- ing the selection, training and development of new Foreign Service officers, something I think will resonate withmillennials. We should identify and nurture the qualities that will be needed for the messy world they will enter, such as independence, creativity, flexibility, the ability to work unsupervised and, above all, courage. Why not give stronger weight to these qualities in the Foreign Ser- vice promotion precepts, and evaluate performance accordingly? Finally, as I’ve already noted, a key indicator of exemplary followership is the practice of constructive dissent. This has an illustrious tradition in the Foreign Service, and AFSA rightfully recognizes it. Yet while the State Department Foreign Service pro- motion precepts do include a section on constructive dissent, that is absent from the USAID precepts. Not surprisingly, fewUSAID FSOs write dissenting cables or memos, and few have received AFSA’s own awards for construc- tive dissent. USAID’s own Direct Channel—which, like the State Dissent Channel, is intended to allow FSOs to bring concerns and critical information to the attention of senior agency leadership— has gone largely unused. That is particularly discouraging for an organization that supports democracy and prides itself on an open and democratic internal culture. Perhaps constructive dissent is not part of the USAID organizational culture, or perhaps USAID FSOs do not feel the need to formally dissent. But I suspect it is also because USAID FSOs are feeling especially vulnerable because they serve in a non-Cabinet agency that faces heavy oversight. As USAID focuses more on fragile states where poverty and instability is most difficult to overcome, we will need to see more constructive dissenters and sharers of honest information. Ultimately, the idea of followership is about turning the bureau- cracy on its head and shaking it a bit before putting it back on its feet. We hear a lot about “innovation.” Innovation is a wonderful idea, but it needs to transform from a buzzword to natural habits and practices. To truly innovate requires an organizational culture where leadership is enhanced by followership. If we follow, we shall also lead. n