Customer Reviews

The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders

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The concept of followership is important and often ignored in a sea of leadership materials.Chaleff has tackled an important issue, and for that he should be applauded. Most of the book is clear and easy to follow, with many lists that can be used to conduct training on being a strong follower. The ways in which followers support leaders and interact with each other are useful to anyone working with teams. Chaleff has also made changes in the second edition that make it easier for followers to take a stand instead of walking away.

Where the book falls short is primarily in design, in my opinion. The switch from single- to double-spacing made me feel like the editors were trying to stretch the material to meet a pre-set number of pages.Overall, though, the book provides much to think about.

In The Courageous Follower, Chaleff focuses on the relationship existing between the formal leadership of an organization and the followers, all the people who ultimately report to the leadership team directly or indirectly. Chaleff also examines the interaction among followers within the leadership team in their relationship with the ultimate leader of the organization (pg. 14, 32).

Like Peter Drucker in The Essential Drucker, Ira Chaleff acknowledges right away that leadership may be informal and distributed throughout an organization (pg. 14). Knowledge workers, who are considered partners rather than employees, can only be helped. The close supervision of knowledge workers is often illusory because of their unique expertise.

Chaleff is conscious of the potential negative baggage associated with the word follower by making clear that a follower is not the same as a subordinate (pg. 15). Chaleff recognizes that being a courageous follower can be a risky proposition. Contingency plans are in any circumstances a necessity, whether the follower is courageous or not, in a fast-changing global economy (pg. 20-21, 163-165). However, a respectful individual who is not afraid to speak and act on the truth, despite the inequities in the relationship between employee and employer, is a force to be reckoned with (pg. 20, 25).

Not everybody is called upon to become and remain a courageous follower. Chaleff divides followers into four profiles that he calls respectively, implementer, resource, individualist and partner. Only the partner, who sooner rather than later dares to challenge on a regular basis the orthodoxy of the leadership team in a constructive, non-confrontational mode, can be counted on as a courageous follower (pg. 40-43, 51, 66, 103-104, 147-148). Readers cannot conclude from this assessment that the contribution of the remaining profiles should be downplayed. However, working closely with an existing or new leader open to the feedback from courageous followers is on its own an excellent growth opportunity (pg. 45, 217-218). Chaleff reminds his audience that well-balanced professionals should take ownership of their career and look for growth opportunities both inside and outside their organization (pg. 45, 47-48).

Reasonably, Chaleff recommends that the follower take an incremental, step-by-step approach to becoming a courageous follower (pg. 22). There is no silver bullet for developing the profile of a courageous follower. Credibility must be earned during the process. As Chaleff states, service is an art and art is developed through commitment and discipline (pg. 85, 150-152).

Passion for the job, initiative, buy-in, loyalty, trust, open mind and communication skills are some of the key ingredients in the establishment and development of a relationship based on courage (pg. 29, 48-50, 53, 62-63, 74, 84, 157). These ingredients take on an even greater importance when a conflict arises between different leaders. Often, these adversaries put pressure on their respective constituencies to build a strong alliance against the "enemy (pg. 81-82)."

Courage cannot lead to disobedience unless special circumstances such as the preservation of life and the respect of the law are deemed important enough to supersede the human tendency to follow orders (pg. 101-103, 170-171, 178-181, 183-185). Leaving the organization will sometimes be the only option left to the courageous follower to maintain his/her integrity after having exhausted other options (pg. 155-187). However, courage does not need to be absolute. The courageous follower could decide to stay after trying in vain to convince the leadership team or leader about the perceived right course to follow (pg. 185-187).

Courageous following is a two-way street. A great leader is not afraid to develop courageous followers because of his/her sense of self-worth (pg. 29, 50, 106-116, 125-128, 189-212). Similarly, the courageous follower is willing and able to directly or indirectly comfort and confront the leader, at the right time and at the right place (pg. 61-62, 97-98). The courageous follower should not abuse his/her access to the leader. Otherwise, access will diminish over time (pg. 64). Developing this talent pool can be critical to the success and/or survival or an organization because of the dangers of groupthink, self-censorship and lack of concern for legal niceties (pg. 99-101, 122, 130-131, 189-193). Unfortunately, a common response is to devalue the individuals taking the stand with potentially disastrous consequences as the recent wave of corporate scandals convincingly demonstrates (pg. 215-217).

Courageous followers, conscious of the importance of buy-in, are flexible enough to see their ideas tested on a small scale with good measurements before a full-blown implementation is considered (pg. 55-56). Furthermore, courageous followers offer if possible at least three different options with their respective pros and cons to get this buy-in (pg. 74-76). Acting along these lines encourages consensus building in pursuing success.

Although leaders receive much value from courageous followers, leaders also need to keep their channels of communication open with their peers as Chaleff rightly points out (pg. 76). A leader's peers, especially those who do not belong to the same professional circles, can provide him/her with an extremely valuable service in further refining the leadership skills in a multitude of settings (pg. 76-77). Alternatively, an outside facilitator can be called in to coach the leader (pg. 139-140).

Changing a leader's behavior is usually more challenging than altering his/her policies for these people gravitating around the leader (pg. 87, 93-94, 132-134, 145-147, 183-185). In all these interactions, the negative feedback should not be directed at the leader himself/herself in order to keep communication channels open (pg. 94-95). When genuine transformation happens, it should be acknowledged and celebrated (pg. 152-153).

This is a significant contribution to the workplace no matter the environment. Chaleff integrates sound principles of human decency with enormous respect for human potential. The result is a practical approach to managing yourself and your leader especially when the stakes are high.

The Courageous Follower is one of the most important books on leadership I've ever read. It is clear that in one way or another, we ALL face the challenges of leadership, perhaps daily. However, it is rare that someone who has been designated a 'leader' considers that they are also a follower with a 'constinuency' - someone they answer to. This book discusses principles designed to encourage the follower AND leader to become assertive, communicative and accountable. Bravo to these brave authors for enlightening us to the art of followership!

It is important to keep in mind that a "follower" is not necessarily someone who never leads; rather, a follower is someone who, in a non-leader situation, nonetheless has ample opportunities to exercise judgment, demonstrate initiative, and offer support to someone who has leadership responsibilities. In other words, the terms "leader" and "follower" have much less to do with rank, title, status, etc. and much more to do with relative authority and responsibility. In the U.S. Marine Corps, for example, senior officers will defer to a non-com who possesses better information.

As I began to read Chaleff's book, I was reminded of James O'Toole's essay, "Speaking to Power," in Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor that he co-authored with Warren Bennis and Daniel Goleman As he notes, "speaking to power is, perhaps, the oldest of all ethical challenges." He briefly discusses several plays (Sophocles' Antigone, John Osborne's Luther, and Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons) whose protagonist offers a reminder to leaders in our own time of the responsibility to create a transparent "culture of candor." This is precisely what Chaleff has in mind when examining "courageous followers" who, when involved in the dynamics of the leader-follower relationship, must summon the courage to assume responsibility, to serve, to challenge, to participate in transformation, and to take moral action.

Meanwhile, Chaleff quite correctly poses this question to leaders: "Do you have the courage to listen to followers?" In the book's final chapter, he shares his thoughts about how important it is for leaders to not only accept but encourage and indeed welcome "messages" that, although perhaps unpleasant to receive, need to be heard and carefully considered. Chaleff urges all leaders to invite "creative challenge" rather than discourage it.

For me, this is one of the most important points that Doris Kearns Goodwin makes in Team of Rivals. When forming his cabinet after election as the 16th president in 1860, Abraham Lincoln assembled a cabinet whose members included several of his strongest political opponents: Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War (who had called Lincoln a "long armed Ape"), William H. Seward as Secretary of State (who was preparing his acceptance speech when Lincoln was nominated), Salmon P. Chase as Secretary of the Treasury (who considered Lincoln in all respects his inferior), and Edward Bates as Attorney General who viewed Lincoln as a well-meaning but incompetent administrator but later described him as "very near being a perfect man."

It took great courage as a leader for Lincoln to include these opponents in his administration but he needed their advice prior to making what proved to be critically important decisions throughout the Civil War. He welcomed their dissent. Also to Lincoln's considerable credit, he created a "culture of candor" in which it was not necessary for a follower to be courageous when "speaking to power."

I highly admire this updated and expanded Third Edition of a book that can be of great value to those who must address today's leadership crisis...and perhaps prevent tomorrow's.

How often do we hear about organizational failures large and small that could have been averted if only...if only organization leaders knew what was known by people below them in the hierarchy...if only organization members who tried to warn leadership had been heard...if only people had the courage to speak?

This third edition of The Courageous Follower - Standing Up to & for Our Leaders provides invaluable wisdom applicable to every member of every organization. Rather than just admonish people to be transparent and make sure to speak the truth to people in power positions, Ira Chaleff teaches us precisely how to do it and how to avoid potential pitfalls along the way. It is helpful regardless of whether your role of the moment is as the follower or as the leader.

People seasoned in their careers will read this and wish they had read it 20 years before. Regardless of where people are in their careers and their organizations, they will be glad to have this teaching now.

This is such a wonderful book. I am reading it for a leadership class and I am passing it around at work. I will be reading it again, when I have further in my career. I would recommend this for a new grad of any profession, and to work the book at your own pace. Applying the ideas into your work flow will improve your perspective of work almost immediately.

I bought this book for a pysc class. THe prof. said we would be able to resale it...ha ha nope

This book fell short of my expectations, based on some of the other reviews. The content is thin, and the author is rather repetitive, as if he is trying to spread the material out far enough to make a full length book, where a single chapter would have been sufficient. The double spacing which appears in sections of the book helps stretch it out, also, as another reviewer pointed out.

Most of the material seemed like common sense to me, but I should reveal that I do have an extensive background in psychology. Maybe the ideas in this book are new to those in the corporate world, so do consider reading it if you do not have much of a psych background.

It's a pretty good, rather quick and easy read, overall, but nothing earth shaking or terribly original.

This book provides valuable building blocks for the important but still evolving model of followership.

While the book contains much pithy and useful advice, such advice could be enlivened and made more compelling if it could be illustrated with more real life examples or case studies than are currently found in the book. As it stands now (3d edition), the book offers few real life illustrations of how its principles are applied by real people in real situations facing real risks.

Such real life examples may be of particular interest to readers since, under the model espoused by the book, most of the risks and burdens required for courageous followership are placed squarely on the follower. Such burdens and risks include not just the usual notion of speaking truth to power, but also taking on potential serious consequences, such as losing a promotion or even one's job due to retaliation by the "leader" for taking concrete actions to show one's objection to the leader's course of action or to "speak to the hierarchy" (e.g. going above one's immediate superior to voice a concern). Compared to such risks, the exhortation in the book aimed specifically at leaders to demonstrate the courage to listen to followers' concerns pales in significance.

Therefore, if one hopes that the courageous followership model can be applied in the real world by many rather than the rare few, advocacy of such model ought to be accompanied by advocacy of building reasonable protections for courageous behavior by followers into the structure of an organization or at least adoption of best practices for building an open and, dare we say, more democratic organizational culture. For example, in the corporate context, one might hope that the model of courageous follower can lend strength to corporate governance reforms aimed at introducing more checks and balances on the powers of the CEO and other senior leaders.

Notwithstanding the above observations, this book remains an important contribution to a field that is deserving of much more attention.