I originally saw a review of this book on the following blog link - http://linked2leadership.com/2009/05/01/the-courage-to-follow/While I find the subtitle a bit, Standing Up to Our Leaders, out of place, the review and my first glance at the book looks promising.
Here are the authors Five Dimensions of Courageous Followership:
1. The Courage to Serve
2. The Courage to Challenge
3. The Courage to Participate in Transformation
4. The Courage to Take Moral Action
5. The Courage to Listen to Followers
Update 8/01/2009 and 12/21/2009: The book is promising and I've posted some quotes from this book on my Succeeding-In-The-Box blog @ http://focusandreflection.blogspot.com/ .
Here are some take aways -
Page 2: It is difficult to appreciate the external pressures on leaders....If these pressures aren't managed well, with adriot help from followers, they can distort the leader's decision-making processes and interpersonal dynamics. Usually, the distortion will be in the direction of more authoritarian behavior and away from the partnering we desire.How does a follower effectively support a leader and relieve these pressures?How does a follwer become a "shaper" rather than simply an "implementer"?How does a follwer contribute to leadership development rather than become a critic of leadership failings?Most of us are leaders in some situations and followers in others. On one level we understand and fully accept this.Page 3: But on another level there seems to exist the deepest discomfort with the term "follower."....The sooner we move beyond these images and get comfortable with the idea of powerful followers supporting powerful leaders, the sooner we can fully develop and test models for dynamic, self-responsibile, synergistic relationships in our organizations.
Page 3: If we are to attain the empowerment we crave, we must accept responsibility for both our own roles ang the roles of our leaders...
There are three things we need to understand:
- we must understand our own power and how to use it...the sources of our power, whom we serve, and what thools we have to carry forward the group's mission from our unique vantage point...
- we must appreciate the value of leaders and cherish the critical contributions they make to our endeavors. We must understand the forces that chisel away at their creativity, good humor, and resolve. We must learn how to minimize these forces and crate a climate in which a leader's strengths are magnified, so a leader can better serve the common purpose....
- we must understand the seductiveness and pitfalls of the power of leadership.
Page 13: The Common Purpose and Core Values - Any organization is a triad consisting of leaders and followers joined in a common purpose. The purpose is the atomic glue that binds us. It gives meaning to our activities. Followers and leaders both orbit around the purpose; followers do not orbit around the leader.
Page 13: If the purpose is not clear and motivating, leaders and followers can only purse their perceived self-interest, not their common interest. The process of clarifying purpose can mobilize a group, heal painful rifts, and help the group steer through treacherous passages. It is a critical act of strong leadership and courageous followership.....Clarifying core values validates the purpose and determines how we will and how we won't pursue it.....A common purpose pursued with decent values is the heart of the healthy leader-follower relationship.
Page 13: The Paradox of Followership -We are responsible. Whether we lead or follow, we are responsible for our own actions and we share responsibility for the actions of those whom we can influence.
Page 14: Followers have great capacity to influence the relationship....Just as a leader is accountable for the actions and performance of followers, so followers are accountable for their leaders....If we amplify our leaders' strengths and modulate their weaknesses, we are the gem cutters of leadership, coaxing out its full brilliance. If we amplify our leaders' weaknesses, we may stress existing fracture lines in their characters and these fracture lines may become fatal flaws. Followers who are closest to a leader carry pivotal responsibility; they markedly shape the tone and outcomes of a leader's tenure.Page 19: If we are to be effective partners with leaders, it is important to remember that as followers we possess our own power, quite apart from the reflected power of the leader.
Page 15: Who Does A Follower Serve?....A follower shares a common purpose with a leader, believes in what the organization is trying to accomplish, wants both the leader and organization to succeed, and works inergetically to this end.Page 16: If serve also ourselves and not the leaders or the stakeholders, we are not followers but opportunist shiphoning off the energy of the group to serve our own agendas.
Page 35 - leaders want their staff to assume more responsibilty, initiate ideas, and take action of their own.....they don't want to be the only one leading.
http://focusandreflection.blogspot.com/2009/08/courageous-follower-taking-action.html
Page 39 - Challengin a specific leader on a specific subject may be healthy, but a pattern of challenging leaders on all subjects is not......A follower who is too subservient and eager to please authority cannot provide the balance a leader requires to use power well.....Clamming up when a leader interrupts us in a raised voice serves us and the leader poorly.
Page 40 to 41 - (see Quadrant chart) A follower operating from the first quadrant (high challenge/high support) gives vigorous support to a leader but is also willing to question the leader's behavior or policies. This individual could be said to be a true partner with the leader and displays many of the characteristics identified with courageous followership in this book.
Page 45 - A key to self-management is personal organization. A follower who is not well organized will too often be unprepared, miss deadlines, submit faulty work, or otherwise fail to meet the leader's expectations.
Page 45 to 46 - Self-management encompasses the nuts and bolts of effective leadership or followership. It is mundane. It is pedestrian. Yet self-managment is a critical skill and a courageous follower must be prepared to do the hard work involved in being personally well organized.....if we are not naturally strong is these areas we assume responsibility for improving our skills.
Page 47 - Management of our life and health are even more fundamental than management of our work if we are to be reliable team members and a source of support for our leaderes....We must do our jobs, not become our jobs.
Page 48 - Successful followers care passionately about their work and the people it serves.
Passion...springs from genuine connection to the common purpose.
Page 49 - Willingness to initiate action without being instructed to do so is a distinguishing characteristic of the courageous follwer. Courageous followers assume responsibility for events in their vicinity - whether it be a customer service complaint or an opportunity that, if seized, can produce a quantum leap forward for the organization.
Page 57 - If you bother leaders with too many matters will squander their energy; if you fail to bring things they need to know to their attention, you may blindside them, causing embarrassment, or calamity.
To that end.....
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