S4-Ep9: The Dance Between Leadership and Followership

Guests: Margaret Heffernan & Ira Chaleff

We start with Margaret Heffernan talking about Turbulence as a chronic condition. Leadership is about building organizations that thrive in turbulence. 1. Acknowledge we are where we are. 2. Build an organization that is spectacularly alert to predict. 3. Be highly sensitive and responsive to what is happening. 4. Create and sustain an information network. 5. Know what is going on. 6. Create an environment where it is safe to say what you see. Move away from fear to open to saying what you believe about what you are seeing. Then Ira Chaleff talks about understanding that to bring out the best leadership requires the best followership. Influence is not unidirectional from leader to follower; it is bi-directional and multi-directional. They elevate each other’s performance in support of the mission that brings them together. We discuss how followers act with courage to collaborate with leaders and the idea of intelligent disobedience?