The Courageous Follower

For every leader there are dozens of followers working closely with them. This updated third edition speaks to those followers and gives them the insights and tools for being effective partners with their leaders.

Many significant failures—from FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina to the recent economic collapse—could have been prevented or mitigated if those lower in the hierarchy were successful at communicating to leaders the risks they saw in the system. Ira Chaleff’s Courageous Follower model has facilitated healthy upward information flow in organizations for over 15 years. The Harvard Business Review called Chaleff a pioneer in the emerging field of followership—this new edition shares his latest thinking on an increasingly vital topic. The updated third edition of The Courageous Follower includes a new chapter, “The Courage to Speak to the Hierarchy.” Much of Chaleff’s model is based on followers having access to the leader. But today, followers can be handed questionable policies and orders that come from many levels above them—even from the other side of the world. Chaleff explores how they can respond effectively, particularly using the power now available through advances in communications technology. Everyone is a follower at least some of the time. Chaleff strips away the passive connotations of that role and provides tools to help followers effectively partner with leaders. He provides rich guidance to leaders and boards on fostering a climate that encourages courageous followership. The results include increased support for leaders, reduced cynicism and organizations saved from serious missteps. NEW Related Product in February 2010 - The Courageous Follower Self-Assessment: Evaluating Your Followership Style and Growth Path

Torture in Abu Ghraib prison. Corporate fraud. Falsified records at Veterans Administration hospitals. Teachers pressured to feed test answers to students. These scandals could have been prevented if, early on, people had said no to their higher-ups. Ira Chaleff discusses when and how to disobey inappropriate orders, reduce unacceptable risk, and find better ways to achieve legitimate goals. He delves into the psychological dynamics of obedience, drawing in particular on what Stanley Milgram's seminal Yale experiments-in which volunteers were induced to administer shocks to innocent people-teach us about how to reduce compliance with harmful orders. Using vivid examples of historical events and everyday situations, he offers advice on judging whether intelligent disobedience is called for, how to express opposition, and how to create a culture where citizens are educated and encouraged to think about whether orders make sense. --

Many significant failures - from FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina to the recent economic collapse - could have been prevented or mitigated if those lower in the hierarchy were successful at communicating to leaders the risks they saw in the system. Ira Chaleff's Courageous Follower model has facilitated healthy upward information flow in organizations for over 15 years. The Harvard Business Review called Chaleff a pioneer in the emerging field of followership - this new edition shares his latest thinking on an increasingly vital topic. The updated third edition of The Courageous Follower includes a new chapter, ''The Courage to Speak to the Hierarchy.'' Much of Chaleff's model is based on followers having access to the leader. But today, followers can be handed questionable policies and orders that come from many levels above them - even from the other side of the world. Chaleff explores how they can respond effectively, particularly using the power now available through advances in communications technology. Everyone is a follower at least some of the time. Chaleff strips away the passive connotations of that role and provides tools to help followers effectively partner with leaders. He provides rich guidance to leaders and boards on fostering a climate that encourages courageous followership. The results include increased support for leaders, reduced cynicism and organizations saved from serious missteps. NEW Related Product in February 2010 - The Courageous Follower Self-Assessment: Evaluating Your Followership Style and Growth Path

The Art of Followership puts dynamic leader-follower interaction at the forefront of discussion. It examines the multiple roles followers play and their often complex relationship to leaders. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners from the burgeoning field of leadership/followership studies, this groundbreaking book outlines how followers contribute to effective leadership and to organizations overall. Drawing from various disciplines?from philosophy, to psychology and management, to education?the book defines followership and its myriad meanings. The Art of Followership explores the practice and research that promote positive followership and reveals the part that followers play in setting the standards and formulating the culture and policies of the group. The contributors include new models of followership and explore fresh perspectives on the contributions that followers make to groups, organizations, societies, and leaders. The book also explores the most current research on followership and includes insights and perspectives on the future of leader-follower relationships.

"My intent in this book is to equip those in follower roles to understand, value, and execute those roles with excellence. Whether we work in an office, sit in a classroom, serve on a committee, play on a team, or join in a congregation, we are followers whenever other people have titles, authority, and responsibility that include us within their sphere of oversight. We are followers, and we call those above us leaders. If that label feels uncomfortable or demeaning to you, read on. Part of our journey will be to overcome the negative stereotypes attached to the word 'follower' -- even those we tend to believe ourselves. This is not a book on leadership strategy or about creating good followers. It is an investigation into how to be a good follower. It is an encouragement to shift our perspective about our leaders and ourselves to one that enables us to contribute as followers with both contentment and excellence"--Introduction.

This unique retrospective, with over three hundred rarely seen documents, traces the impact of Ira Chaleff's ground breaking work that conceives of followership as the indispensable complement to leadership. Building on this record, it introduces the work of the community of followership educators and practitioners that has flourished in tandem with those initiatives. The narratives preceding each chronological segment place the documents in historic context. They suggest new veins of research for the upcoming generation of scholars drawn to this emerging field. The narratives inform, clarify, surprise, at times amuse and often inspire. The theorists, educators, trainers and coaches engaged with the subject of followership are a highly motivated group. They understand the power of the subject to change the way leadership is done, to support its virtues, curb its excesses and improve its outcomes. They also perceive that much of the world doesn't know about followership or sufficiently value it. There is truth in this statement. But it is not the entire truth. The purpose of this volume is to document the impressive variety of countries and institutions where courageous followership, and the other major followership models, have made their impact. Filling in this picture will bolster the commitment of the followership community to find better ways of developing dynamic and ethical followership in society, a manifestly crucial need in the face of leadership failures and transgressions. In that sense, this is a love letter to the followership community and an inscription on the baton Chaleff is passing to them.

Since its original publication in 1995, The Courageous Follower has been put on reading lists everywhere from corporations and the military to unions and churches. This guide helps transform passive followers into active players who can help right leadership wrongs and support and foster a values-based organization.

Followership teaches leaders how to replicate effective, biblical leadership qualities. CEOs, managers, parents, clergy, and students alike gain insight from the practical principles presented. If you lead, serve, or want to build a motivated, innovative, and successful team, you will receive outstanding results as you apply these teachings. Followership: • Teaches principles for both leaders and followers and can be practiced in any aspect of building an organization. • Declares and supports the fact that followership is what makes or breaks leadership, leadership is what makes or breaks an organization. • Is your resource book for developing a dynamic followership culture within your life and organization. Most likely you’ve been taught how to lead, but do you know how to follow? The true art of leadership is followership. There are many resource materials on leadership, yet little if any resources on how to follow your leader. Followership is designed to infuse your person and organization with the motivation, heart, and intention that every successful and lasting team is built upon. Leaders of every type and level can use Followership as a training manual to build healthy, happy, high performance teams. Because of the character development aspects, it is an asset to network groups, support groups, and church home groups.

How to create leaders people to follow ... And Followers who leadthemselves.