Can there be leaders without followers?

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.