The Courageous Follower, Third Edition
Standing Up to & for Our Leaders
By: Ira Chaleff
Published: November 2009
Format: Paperback, 264pp
ISBN-13: 9781605092737
ISBN-10: 1605092738
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
"Most of us are leaders in some situations and followers in others. On one level we understand and fully accept this. You can't, by definition, have a world of only leaders", writes award winning leadership expert and President of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates, Ira Chaleff, in his brilliant and definitive book The Courageous Follower, Third Edition: Standing Up to & for Our Leaders. The author creates a book for followers who choose to support a leader, and how followers and leaders can develop a closer and more equitable relationship through the courage to give and accept support, ideas, cautionary advice, and honest feedback.
Ira Chaleff understands that the old command and control model of leadership is declining, and being replaced by a model based on more parity between leader and followers. The older model was based on a paternalistic approach that no longer works with today's more empowered employees and citizens. The author points out that the older authoritarian leader and follower model worked well in the industrial age, but is not suited for the modern information age. The days of the docile follower paradigm are over. Followers now must become more comfortable with their power and support powerful leaders and work to develop newer models based on shared responsibility. To answer this problem of creating a new dynamic, Ira Chaleff presents the concept of the courageous follower.
Ira Chaleff (photo left) recognizes that a courageous follower has new responsibilities along with the new found empowerment. At the same time, a new type of leader is emerging who accepts input and feedback from followers. While self aware leaders understand the new parity relationship, years of socialization to the traditional leader-follower model must be overcome. There has been little cultural support, within our culture, for this changing interpersonal dynamic. To address this challenge to the social programming process, Ira Chaleff posits his five dimensions of courageous followership. They include the courage to assume responsibility, the courage to serve, the courage to challenge, the courage to participate in transformation, and the courage to take moral action. Combined with the courage to speak to the hierarchy and the courage to listen to followers, on the part of leaders, the opportunity for leaders and followers to work together to achieve great things is immense.
For me, the power of the book is how Ira Chaleff presents a new and powerful leadership and followership dynamic that works to benefit both parts of the relationship. In place of the outmoded traditional command and obey system, where a leader's ideas, actions, and orders go unchallenged, followers are empowered to stand up for what is right, and what is in the best interests of the organization and of society. As the world evolves into a more egalitarian culture, leaders who are not listening or responsive to their followers will fail in reaching their goals. Followers are no longer docile, and the older mindset of being subordinate is no longer appropriate in the information age when ideas and creativity flow up from followers, as well as down from leaders. Very often, ideas and decisions are reached jointly, as leaders and followers create a parity and develop mutual trust and respect.
I highly recommend the insightful and visionary book The Courageous Follower, Third Edition: Standing Up to & for Our Leaders by Ira Chaleff, to anyone seeking a new approach to leadership and followership in the information age. The book provides a clear understanding of the new relationship and responsibilities shared by today's leaders and followers. Gone are the days of the docile follower. In the more egalitarian world of today and tomorrow, leaders must have the courage to listen to and accept honest feedback. Followers must have the courage to provide that guidance for their leaders.
Read the practical and must read book The Courageous Follower, Third Edition: Standing Up to & for Our Leaders by Ira Chaleff, and begin the journey toward a more equitable, open, and trusting relationship between leader and follower. This book is the essential road map for establishing courage in both followers and their leaders.
