Chaleff's follower typology

Disciplines > Leadership > Followership > Chaleff's follower typology

Implementers | Partners | Individualists | Resources | See also

Ira Chaleff classified followers based on the extent to which they support leaders as opposed to how much they challenged them. Good followership is seen as a skill that requires courage and that blind obedience is not good followership.

Good leaders are also good followers and vice versa. The roles are seen to be not simply separated.

Implementers

Implementers are the majority workhorses of organizations, taking orders and completing them with any real questions.

Partners

Partners like to be treated as equals to the leader, although they respect the leader's position. They are thus strong supporters but will provide intelligent challenge where they deem necessary.

Individualists

Individualists are not easy followers and will tend to think for themselves and prefer to do as they want.

Resources

Resources do what is requested of them, but little more. They are blindly obedient but lack the intelligence or courage to provide challenge.