Why We Follow Leadersand Why We Don’t

Why do we follow our leaders including our parents, teachers, and managers even when we dont want to? Conversely, why do we sometimes resist? This is a unique look at why we defer to leaders who are dominant and why sometimes we do not.

This groundbreaking book investigates the human tendency to follow, as well as the occasional defiance of this norm. This is the first work to focus not on why people with power and authority behave as they do, but on why people without respond as they do.

Leadership is a relationship. There is no leader without at least one follower. Still, notwithstanding their essential importance especially to leaders followers are largely ignored. This book is a corrective: followers are placed in the foreground, and leaders in the background.

First, Barbara Kellerman focuses on the rewards and punishments that prompt us to go along with the leader and conform to the group. Next, she highlights what