Ira Chaleff - Followers and Tyrants

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Ira Chaleff is an author, speaker, workshop presenter, and innovative thinker on the beneficial use of power between those who are leading and those who are following in any given situation. His groundbreaking book, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders, is in its third edition, has been published in multiple languages, and is in use in institutions around the globe including educational, corporate, government, and military organizations. 

He has recently completed two terms of service as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and is the founder of its Followership Member Community. He is currently mentoring a community of academics and professionals in the field of courageous followers gathered around the Teaching Followers Courage project. Ira is also the founder and president of Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates, which provides coaching, consulting, and facilitation to companies, associations, and agencies throughout the Washington, DC, area.

He is chairman emeritus of the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation and has provided facilitation to nearly one hundred congressional offices to improve their service to constituents. Ira is Adjunct Faculty at the Federal Executive Institute where he teaches a weeklong elective workshop on Courageous Followers, Courageous Leaders in the Leadership in a Democratic Society program, and is a Visiting Leadership Scholar at the University of Cambridge, England.

Ira has been named one of the “100 best minds on leadership” by Leadership Excellence magazine. He was cited in the Harvard Business Review as one of the three pioneers in the growing field of followership studies. 

Ira Chaleff lives in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Washington, DC, where bears frequently disobey the No Trespassing signs on the road and help keep his connection strong with the wonders of nature.



A Quote From This Episode

• "I had to ask myself the question, 'if evolution sorts out the behaviors that don't contribute to a species' survival, why is this strong-man-autocrat, proto-tyrant, still so prevalent? They must be serving some purpose.' That's a very problematic statement."

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

• Book - People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck
• Book - Intelligent Disobedience by Chaleff
• Book - A Celebration of Followership: The Story in Documents of Courageous Followership and the Followership Community by Chaleff
• Book - Power of Followership by Kelly
• Book - Followership by Kellerman

About The International Leadership Association (ILA)

• The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals with a keen interest in the study, practice, and teaching of leadership. Plan now for ILA's 24th Global Conference Online October 6 & 7, 2022, and/or Onsite in Washington, D.C., October 13-16, 2022.

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