If there aren’t followers how can leaders exist? How can we determine if someone is a leader if they don’t have followers? Aren’t the followers that determine if someone is a leader? If there are no followers, how can someone show they are a leader? I don’t think it is possible for leaders to exist without followers, followers are what makes the leader, without followers there is no proof of the leader’s quality. Followers make the leader and followers are the power of the leader, without them a leader is no one. If a leader can’t get any followers, is he really a leader?

I think the question itself provides an answer. If you are a leader, you must be a leader of something. If there are no followers means there are no leaders and everyeone is essentially equal by the status quo.

Leaders tend to gather strong people around them and theoretically a leader may have no followers at the beggining but if he or she were to be an actual leader, they would round up to the leader as followers.

All in all, the answer to the question is both yes and no, with a more stronger objective points going towards no, leaders cannot be without followers.

I think not. I don't know how that is even possible. Every leader has at least minimum of followers in the terms of assistants, co-workers, business associates. Without them, the leader wouldn't be on that position.

Plus, if there are no followers, leader can't be a leader because there is no one to be led and no one to vote/choose him/her for the leader. Followers are those who maintain the leader's position in some way. They give their faith and trust in him/her by cooperating together on important issues.

Isn’t this a trick question? There can be leaders and followers who are leaders themselves. But the leader- follower relationship is a continuum which needs the each participant in the relationship to play their roles in order that it stays intact. For instance, there can be a leader in the top management who delegate tasks and sets goals working with another set of leaders in the senior management. This could mean that the senior managers are led by the director or top management. However, these senior managers again go ahead and work with other managers from the middle management who in turn lead other teams of associates, making everyone in the continuum a leader and a follower. From this philosophy of leadership continuum it is much more evident that there have to be followers for leaders to exist, however it doesn’t necessarily have to be true that these followers aren’t leaders themselves. Again, if we see in collective cultural societies, we can note that there are collective efforts put in without necessarily a leader in place or followers following one particular person in terms of directives and decisions. This could also exist in specific scenarios.