Noel DeJesus Reading List
Noel DeJesus gave us his recommended leadership reading list of 2021. This list is consisting of five books that Noel found extremely impactful to his development as a leader. They are themed on Followership and Ethical Behavior. Take a look at these 5 books and let us know Which one do you want to read next?
The Ethics of Leadership by Joanne B. Ciulla: The focus of ETHICS OF LEADERSHIP is the ethical challenges that are distinctive to leaders and leadership. Organized around themes such as power and the public and private morality of leaders, the book explores the ethical issues of leadership in a variety of contexts including, business, NGOs, and government. It integrates material on ethics and leadership from the great Eastern and Western philosophers with leadership literature and case studies. This multi-disciplinary approach helps philosophers and leadership scholars present a fully integrated view of the subject.
Bad Leadership: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters (Leadership for the Common Good) By by Barbara Kellerman: How is Saddam Hussein like Tony Blair? Or Kenneth Lay like Lou Gerstner? Answer: They are, or were, leaders. Many would argue that tyrants, corrupt CEOs, and other abusers of power and authority are not leaders at all–at least not as the word is currently used. But, according to Barbara Kellerman, this assumption is dangerously naive. A provocative departure from conventional thinking, Bad Leadership compels us to see leadership in its entirety. Kellerman argues that the dark side of leadership–from rigidity and callousness to corruption and cruelty–is not an aberration. Rather, bad leadership is as ubiquitous as it is insidious–and so must be more carefully examined and better understood. Drawing on high-profile, contemporary examples–from Mary Meeker to David Koresh, Bill Clinton to Radovan Karadzic, Al Dunlap to Leona Helmsley–Kellerman explores seven primary types of bad leadership and dissects why and how leaders cross the line from good to bad. The book also illuminates the critical role of followers, revealing how they collaborate with, and sometimes even cause, bad leadership. Daring and counterintuitive, Bad Leadership makes clear that we need to face the dark side to become better leaders and followers ourselves. Barbara Kellerman is research director of the Center for Public Leadership and a lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Followership: How Followers Are Creating Change and Changing Leaders (Center for Public Leadership) by Barbara Kellerman: This groundbreaking volume provides the first sweeping view of followers in relation to their leaders, deliberately departing from the leader-centric approach that dominates our thinking about leadership and management. Barbara Kellerman argues that, over time, followers have played increasingly vital roles. For two key reasons, this trend is now accelerating. Followers are becoming more important, and leaders less. Through gripping stories about a range of people and places—from multinational corporations such as Merck, to Nazi Germany, to the American military after 9/11—Kellerman makes key distinctions among five different types of followers: Isolates, Bystanders, Participants, Activists, and Diehards. And she explains how they relate not only to their leaders but also to each other. Thanks to Followership, we can finally appreciate the ways in which those with relatively fewer sources of power, authority, and influence are consequential. Moreover, they are getting bolder and more strategic. As Kellerman makes crystal clear, to fixate on leaders at the expense of followers is to do so at our peril. The latter are every bit as important as the former, which makes this book required reading for superiors and subordinates alike.
The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders by Ira Chaleff: Many significant failures—from FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina to the recent economic collapse—could have been prevented or mitigated if those lower in the hierarchy were successful at communicating to leaders the risks they saw in the system. Ira Chaleff’s Courageous Follower model has facilitated healthy upward information flow in organizations for over 15 years. The Harvard Business Review called Chaleff a pioneer in the emerging field of followership—this new edition shares his latest thinking on an increasingly vital topic.
The updated third edition includes a new chapter, “The Courage to Speak to the Hierarchy.” Much of Chaleff’s model is based on followers having access to the leader. But today, followers can be handed questionable policies and orders that come from many levels above them—even from the other side of the world. Chaleff explores how they can respond effectively, particularly using the power now available through advances in communications technology.
Everyone is a follower at least some of the time. Chaleff strips away the passive connotations of that role and provides tools to help followers effectively partner with leaders. He provides rich guidance to leaders and boards on fostering a climate that encourages courageous followership. The results include increased support for leaders, reduced cynicism and organizations saved from serious missteps.
The Art of Followership puts dynamic leader-follower interaction at the forefront of discussion. It examines the multiple roles followers play and their often complex relationship to leaders. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners from the burgeoning field of leadership/followership studies, this groundbreaking book outlines how followers contribute to effective leadership and to organizations overall.
Drawing from various disciplines?from philosophy, to psychology and management, to education?the book defines followership and its myriad meanings. The Art of Followership explores the practice and research that promote positive followership and reveals the part that followers play in setting the standards and formulating the culture and policies of the group.
The contributors include new models of followership and explore fresh perspectives on the contributions that followers make to groups, organizations, societies, and leaders. The book also explores the most current research on followership and includes insights and perspectives on the future of leader-follower relationships.
Noel DeJesus is a combat veteran who has served on three tours to Iraq and Afghanistan. His passion is to provide pocket-sized leadership guides that are quick and easy to read. He holds a Master of Arts in Administrative Leadership from the University of Oklahoma and numerous leadership certifications.
Noel can be reached via LinkedIn, Facebook or his website
