Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
Case 12.2: Olympic Rowers
Case Synopsis and Analysis
In the 1930s, rowing was the most popular sport in the country, a sport dominated by elite
East Coast universities like Cornell, Harvard, and Princeton. However, in the 1936 Olympics,
the University of Washington team would represent the United States in Berlin, Germany.
The leader of the college team, Ulbrickson, had a program with a number of talented rowers-
-most were not elite or wealthy, but rather were sons of loggers, farmers and fishermen.
Finding the ideal makeup of members for a successful rowing team is a complex process. A
great crew is a carefully balanced mix of rowers with different physical abilities and
personalities. To find that magic mix, Ulbrickson experimented with different combinations
of rowers, putting individual rowers on different teams to see how they performed together.
But it was more than just putting the right abilities together; it was finding the right chemistry
and the Washington team would go on to decimate the competition.
At the Olympics, a key oarsman fell ill and could not compete. But the team pulled together
and faced this new challenge by defeating England in its preliminary heat, and made it to the
finals. Still, they were in the worst lane in the final race, which put them at a two-length
disadvantage, they experienced a delayed start because they missed the signal that the race
had begun and their sick oarsman was barely conscious. But they came from behind and won
Olympic gold.
Learning objectives:
• Students should be able to apply principles of followership to leader behaviors.
• Students should apply the model of “reversing the lens” to better understand the
concepts of followership.
Answers to questions in the text:
1. In what way is this case about followership? Who were the followers? Who were the
leaders?
The rowers who believed they could compete with the elite rowers from around the
world were the followers. The initial leader was Ulbrickson, who challenged the
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
2. The coxswain is the crew member who sits in the stern facing the bow, steers the
boat, and coordinates the power and rhythm of the rowers. In this case, is the
coxswain’s role more or less important than the roles of other crew members?
Explain your answer.
Some may answer “no.” That the coxswain is just a piece of the machine. Each piece
3. Reversing the lens emphasizes that followers can be change agents—what was the
impact of followers’ characteristics on followers’ behaviors in this case? What impact
do you think Ulbrickson’s perception and behaviors had on the rowers in his
program?
The followers or rowers were not from the same mold as other elite rowing teams
4. How would you describe the impact of both followers and leaders on followership
outcome?
The connection is truly a symbiotic one. The team believed in the process and the
5. In this case, the boys in the boat created a highly cohesive unit. Do you think highly
effective followership always results in cohesiveness? Defend your answer.
If the followers truly believe in the cause, then “yes.” Through training, talent
acquisition, and belief in an ideal, the trainer and the team can become a strong unit.
Northouse, Leadership 8e
SAGE Publications, 2019
Potential teaching approaches:
Below is a way to structure a class based on Followership and Case Study 12.2:
• Hold a lecture on followership.
• Ask students to read Case 12.2 and answer the questions.
• Discuss the case study questions as a class.
• Finally, the professor may choose to conduct in-class exercises listed below.
Exercises for this case study:
1) Have student teams search for YouTube videos of this rowing team from the
University of Washington. Have the students watch the clips and then relate it back to
the Kellerman Follower Typology model (Figure 12.5). Rate each character (athletes
2) In small groups, after watching the videos listed above and outlining the comparisons,
students should discuss the many variables needed for a successful team (athletic or