S11-Ep1: To Stop a Tyrant: How Five Types of Followers Make (or Brake) a Toxic Leader

Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future

Guest: Ira Chaleff, former executive director of the Congressional Management Foundation

Tyrants can only rise with our help. And they aren’t limited to heads of state. Family heads, corporate CEOs, a town mayor: any leadership role can have tyrannical qualities. As followers, we make them possible.

And we can push them to a better path.

Our guest, Ira Chaleff, studies followership in-depth. He’s identified five categories of followers who play a role in a tyrant’s rise…and how they can change that course.

Here's what Ira and Maureen cover:

1. Where you may stand in the follower categories;
2. The big differences between dictators and tyrants; and
3. What you can do to improve outcomes by understanding the concepts of courageous followership.

Other episodes you'll enjoy:

• The Dance Between Leadership & Followership with Margaret Heffernan & Ira Chaleff
• Courageous Followership with Neil Grunberg & Ira Chaleff
• They’re Always Watching You: A White House Advisor’s Lessons for Every Leader with Betsy Myers

Produced in conjunction with the International Leadership Association: https://ilaglobalnetwork.org/.

For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn. We’re onTikTok, Threads, and Twitter, too!

RESOURCES:

Ira’s book, To Stop a Tyrant, is available in hardback at https://amzn.to/3W5XDys and on Kindle at https://amzn.to/420Zvwc. An audiobook edition is coming soon.

Learn more about Ira, his other books, and his extensive work at https://irachaleffauthor.com/.

Our host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here.

Maureen’s latest book is Innovative Leadership & Followership in the Age of AI. You’ll find details about it at https://bit.ly/LeaderInAI, or check out the Kindle version at https://amzn.to/44buVz8. The audiobook version is now available at https://amzn.to/4dTCleZ.

Her other 10 books are available on Amazon here.

Books we’re reading for fun or personal development right now include:

• To Stop a Tyrant by Ira Chaleff, on how leaders become tyrants and their types of followers, is in hardback on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3W5XDys and on Kindle at https://amzn.to/420Zvwc. An audiobook edition is coming soon.
• Take Back Your Power: 10 New Rules for Women at Work by Ancestry CEO Deb Liu, on how to overcome the obstacles women still face in the workplace – especially in tech. It’s in hardback at https://amzn.to/47OUO9E, and audio at https://amzn.to/3Y6EmOQ.
• Covert Cows and Chick-fil-A by Steve Robinson; it’s available in hardback at https://amzn.to/460LnmQ, on Kindle at https://amzn.to/3RVXhZs, and as an audiobook at https://amzn.to/3xPjBgn.
• The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Paperback = https://amzn.to/3VEl7cU, Kindle = https://amzn.to/45JGm1L, and audiobook = https://amzn.to/3RPhC2y

NOTE: As an Amazon partner, we may make a small commission from books you buy through these links.

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OUR PODCAST TEAM:

Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf

Editor & Executive Producer: Dan Mushalko

Video & Graphics Editor: Devon Mushalko

Booking Producer: Jenna Reik

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Website: InnovativeLeadershipInstitute.com

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About Our Guest:

Ira Chaleff is an author, speaker, and innovative thinker specializing in the dynamics between leaders and followers. He serves as chairman emeritus of the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation in Washington, D.C., an organization dedicated to enhancing communication between constituents and their elected representatives.

Chaleff's groundbreaking work, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders, has been published in multiple languages and is utilized globally across educational, corporate, government, and military institutions. He co-edited The Art of Followership: How Great Followers Create Great Leaders and Organizations, part of the esteemed Warren Bennis Leadership Series. His book Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told to Do Is Wrong explores the roots of obedience and provides guidance on resisting inappropriate orders to achieve ethical outcomes.

As the founder of the Followership Learning Community within the International Leadership Association, Chaleff has been recognized as one of the 100 "Best Minds on Leadership" by Leadership Excellence magazine. He has served on the board of the International Leadership Association and was a visiting leadership scholar at Churchill College, University of Cambridge, England. His ideas on leadership and followership have influenced cultures within the U.S. military, civilian agencies, and international institutions, including the European Union and the British Army.

Chaleff holds a degree in Applied Behavioral Science and is a Board Certified Coach from the Center for Credentialing and Education. He continues to contribute to the global followership community through writing and lecturing from his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.