Courageous Followers can Stop Destructive Leadership - Alain de Sales

Dr. Alain de Sales shares his research on how courageous followers can collapse patterns of destructive leadership. He surfaces destructive episodes using the toxic triangle framework made up of leaders, susceptible followers and context. Through compelling stories and examples, he shows how specific, methodical, and sequential acts of courageous followership can interrupt harm and topple abusive power structures at any scale and in any domain, including business, politics, and social movements.
 
 “Courage is a functional skill and you’ve got to practice it.”

“Leadership and followership are dichotomous roles that we both play all the time.”

“We nearly always have agency to resist destructive leadership”.

“Every opportunity is an opportunity to practice courage.”

Connect with Alain on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alaindesales

 References in this Episode

Mary Parker Follett was a management theorist who introduced the concept of followers as distinct from leaders in the 1920s.

Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon papers revealing the atrocities of the Vietnam war. 

The courageous actions of several people during the Watergate scandal ultimately contributed to President Richard Nixon’s resignation just before he could be impeached.
 
 Gaslit Nation is co-hosted by independent journalists Sarah Kendzior & Andrea Chalupa
www.gaslitnationpod.com

Ira Chaleff, The Courageous Follower
 
 M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth
 
"You can’t be neutral on a moving train." – Howard Zinn