The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders

The Courageous Follower

Audio excerpt by R. K. Meier

The concept of “courageous followership” is based on the award-winning book: The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders, written by Ira Chaleff and published by Berrett-Koehler. The book is a landmark in the newly emerging field of Leadership/Followership studies.

If we practice being courageous in our mundane actions with leaders, we will be prepared if one day we are called upon to display extraordinary courage in our relation with a leader. By weaving the principle of accountable followership into our culture at every level, the fabric will become strong enough to resist the periodic attempts of individual leaders to emboss it with their own martial coat of arms. —Ira Chaleff

Many significant failures —from FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina to the 2008 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 Followership 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.

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. More details

The Courageous Follower Third Edition

The updated third edition of The Courageous Follower includes a new chapter, “The Courage to Speak to the Hierarchy”. Much of Chaleff’s courageous followership 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.

In junction with this edition, Ira is offering an online self assessment of your followership style.

The Courageous Follower has been incorporated into many curricula, including senior- and mid-level police officer training at virtually every level of the California Law Enforcement community. It was part of the syllabus for the first course on Followership taught (by Barbara Kellerman) at the John F.Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

An award-winning training video, “Courageous Followers, Courageous Leaders: New Relationships for Changing Times” was produced by CRM Learning based on this book.