A Path to Leadership: The Heroic Follower.

A Path to Leadership: The Heroic Follower

by Robert Palestini, Rowman and Littlefield Education, Lanham, Md., 2006, 261 pp. with index, $34.95 softcover 

Thousands of books exist on leadership written from every angle imaginable. Reading leadership books is helpful, but a leader by definition has to have followers and what are they to read?

Robert Palestini, a former superintendent and current dean of graduate and continuing studies at St. Joseph's University, has composed one of the few books available for followers, A Path to Leadership: The Heroic Follower.

Who would want to learn how to be a good follower? According to the author, "being a good follower is the path to becoming a good leader. On the contrary, if one is not a good follower, there is little chance that that individual will ever develop into an effective leader. In fact, we will see that virtually every characteristic of a good, make that heroic, follower is reflective of that possessed by a successful leader."

With the above concept as a platform, heroic followers, Palestini says, should be purposeful, responsible, communicative, flexible, trustworthy and respectful and sensitive. The first four are "habits of the mind" with the latter two being "habits of the heart," which form the outer ring of his Heroic Follower Wheel. Each chapter has a diagnostic checklist for readers to assess their status as heroic followers.

The strength of this volume is the co-mingling of the traits of leadership and followership. The underlying emphasis on leadership is also a weakness as the assumption is that heroic followers aspire to leadership roles when that may not be the case. Some individuals are content being heroic followers.

Reviewed by Art Stellar, superintendent, Taunton Public Schools, Taunton, Mass.