What are the three concepts from the courageous follower?

Answer 1

Three of the core concepts of the courageous follower model are these:

1. Followers do not serve leaders. Rather, leaders and followers both serve the common purpose or mission, within a shared set of values. This construct emphasizes service to the mission and de-emphasizes the power differential inherent in hierarchical relationships, without dismissing the reality of that differential.

2. There are five sets of behaviors that comprise courageous followership per the model:

- The courage to assume responsibility

- The courage to support the leader

- The courage to challenge unproductive behaviors or policies of the leader

- The courage to participate in transformation

- The courage to take a moral stand

Of these, a dissertation by Phyllis Rich found that the courage to assume responsibility is the followership behavior most valued by leaders

The four styles of followership derived from the model depend on the mixture of the courage to support and the courage to question or challenge. A follower who exhibits both high support the leader's initiatives and a high willingess to question or challenge counterproductive behavior or policy, is assuming the "partner style" of followership.

3. "Follower' is not a personality type. It is a role, and everyone in organizational life sometimes plays the follower role, and sometimes plays a leader role. Playing both roles with commitment, courage and integrity is needed to produce a benign and successful use of power.

Ira Chaleff

Author

The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders

www.courageousfollower.net