The Art of Followership

Perspectives from The Art of Followership In many ways, great followership is harder than leadership. It has more dangers and fewer rewards, and it must routinely be exercised with much more subtlety. But great followership has never been more important. -Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor, University of Southern California, and author, Leaders and On Becoming A Leader Thirty years ago, I wrote that 'one of the most serious failures in the study of leadership has been the bifurcation between the literature on leadership and the literature on followership.' Surely, I added, it was 'time that the two literatures be brought together.' I know of no work that faces this challenge so well as The Art of Followership. I expect it to be a landmark work in the complexities of the leader-follower dynamic. -James MacGregor Burns, Woodrow Wilson Professor (emeritus) at Williams College; author, Leadership; and senior editor, The Encyclopedia of Leadership The field of followership is still in its infancy. It is rare that people get a chance to build and shape a new area of inquiry. Collectively, we can grow the followership field so that it makes powerful contributions to society. -Robert E. Kelley, professor, Carnegie Mellon University, and author, The Power of Followership and In Praise of Followership