The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders is a book written by Ira Chaleff, and is a very powerful work. We have been discussing the contents over the past week or so around the ashram and Loft.

Followership has traditionally been thought of as passive or docile role. Hopefully if you have read some of my previous posts (such as this one) discussing the role and nature of effective followers you’ll have realized that this is not at all the case. Effective followers are themselves leaders discharging a particular role. This book really brings this point out. It takes courage to be an effective follower. Anyone can be a sycophant or play the disgruntled, alienated role. Not many people can muster up the courage that it takes to be responsibly independent and effectively interdependent in the effective follower role.

I am still at the very beginning of the book, but here are a few power-packed points from the book:

• Teachers and students form a learning circle around a body of knowledge; similarly Leaders and Followers form an action circle around purpose.
• Followers and Leaders both orbit around a purpose, Followers do not orbit around Leaders.
• Followers have to be passionate about their work, not consumed by passion

The word “passionate” in this sense should not be confused with the english translation for rajas, which is something else. What is spoken of here is utsahan, which is usually translated as “enthusiasm”. Passion in the above sentence does refer to rajas.

In other words, you have to be enthusiastic but not enslaved, fired-up but not fanatical.

The book is filled with subtlety. It’s not black and white, 1,2,3 paint by numbers. Different considerations are presented, and the reader is informed that they must be balanced. As an example, here is something that relates to a subject treated in one line of Sri Krishna Bhajanamrita, generally attributed to Narahari Sarkara.

In Sri Krishna Bhajanamrita the subject of what to do when one’s spiritual leader engages in inappropriate behaviour is discussed. The author states that if one observes inappropriate behaviour in the leader, then one should approach that person privately to present them with one’s concerns.

Chaleff elaborates further on this most delicate of duties of a follower:

Three things need to be considered at once:

1. Honour the accomplishments of the leader.
2. Preserve the self-esteem of the adult.
3. Challenge the appropriateness of the behaviour.

This might sound trite in isolation like this, but in his book Chaleff covers things thoroughly. Let me share the section headings of the first chapter to give you an idea:

The Dynamics of the Leader-Follower Relationship

• The Common Purpose and Core Values
• The Paradox of Followership
• Who Does a Follower Serve?
• Loyalty of a Follower
• Power in the Leader-Follower Relationship
• Value of the Follower
• Courage of the Follower
• Balance through Relationship
• Differences in Elevation
• Finding Equal Footing with the Leader
• When the Leader Isn’t an Equal
• Trust
• Followers as Leaders
• Working with Other Followers

In the Preface to the book Chaleff lists five dimensions to courageous followership, and I’ll post them up with a little discussion of each one over the next few days.