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200 PART 3: THE PERSONAL SIDE OF LEADERSHIP
the U.S. Army teaches soldiers that they have a duty to disobey illegal or
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immoral orders. Good leaders want followers who are willing to chal-
lenge them for the good of the organization. When he was CEO of IBM, Lou
Gerstner hired Larry Ricciardi as senior vice president and corpo-
rate counsel even though he knew Ricciardi would challenge his
Action Memo
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thinking and decisions. Leaders are human and make mistakes.
Effective leaders depend on followers who have the courage to
As a follower, you can support your leaders
challenge them.
through diffi cult times, but have the courage
to challenge your superiors when their
The Courage to Participate in Transformation Effective followers
behavior or decisions contradict the best
interests of the organization.
view the struggle of corporate change and transformation as a mutual
experience shared by all members of the organization. When an orga-
nization undergoes a difficult transformation, effective followers sup-

port the leader and the organization. They are not afraid to confront the
changes and work toward reshaping the organization. David Chislett, of Imperial
Oil’s Dartmouth, Nova Scotia refinery, was faced with this test of courage. The

refinery was the least effi cient in the industry and the Board of Directors gave

management 9 months to turn things around. Chislett’s bosses asked him to give
up his management position and return to the duties of a wage earner as part of
an overall transformation strategy. He agreed to the request, thereby contributing
to the success of the refi nery’s transformation. 19

The Courage to Leave Sometimes organizational or personal changes create a
situation in which a follower must withdraw from a particular leader– follower re-
lationship. People might know they need new challenges, for example, even though
it is hard to leave a job where they have many friends and valued colleagues. If
followers are faced with a leader or an organization unwilling to make necessary
changes, it is time to take their support elsewhere. Sometimes followers and lead-
ers have such strong differences of opinion that the follower can no longer sup-
port the leader’s decisions and feels a moral obligation to leave. U.S. General John
Batiste turned down a promotion and resigned because he felt he could no longer
support civilian leaders’ decisions regarding Iraq. The role of military offi cers is
to advise civilian leaders and then carry out orders even when they disagree. Gen.
Batiste spent weeks torn between his sense of duty and respect for the chain of
command and a feeling that he owed it to his soldiers to speak out against leaders’
decisions. Ultimately, believing he could no longer serve his leaders as he should,
the general had the courage to leave the job, even though it meant the end of a
lifelong career he highly valued. 20

Developing Personal Potential

How do followers expand their potential to be critical, independent thinkers who
make active contributions to their organizations? Later in this chapter, we’ll discuss
the crucial role of leaders in developing effective followers. However, followers
can expand their own capabilities by developing and applying personal leader-
ship qualities in both their private and work lives. One well-known and widely
acclaimed approach to helping people deal courageously with life’s changes and
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challenges is Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey

defines a habit as the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire. His approach
to personal and interpersonal effectiveness includes seven habits arranged along
a maturity continuum, from dependence to independence to interdependence, as