Ira Chaleff, author of The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders and Co-Editor, The Art of Followership wrote about Be the Horse or the Jockey:
Jeanne Gulbranson has done a marvelous job adding to the small, but steadily growing literature on followership. She takes the reader through a serious and digestible review of the existing literature, and presents her own synthesis that complements and adds value to these pioneering works. Gulbranson has the eye of an artist. What others see and pass by, she stops and plumbs for meaning until the light bulb flashes and she has extracted new insight to use in her life and to share in entertaining ways with her readers. You will learn much about leaders and followers from this book that you can apply just about anywhere you interact with your fellow human beings. And you will play both roles better from here on out.
"Be the Horse or the Jockey" at the University of Minnesota
Kim Riordan, EdD
Professor and Associate Dept. Head
Accreditation Director
University of MN Duluth
Department of Education
I have taught the Leadership and Personal Growth course at the University of Minnesota Duluth for the past eight years. This past year I used excerpts from the book "Be the Horse or the Jockey" by Jeanne Gulbranson-a book perfect for helping students to understand the concept of followership and its inherent role in the effectiveness of any leader.
The idea of "leadership" for most graduate students is a concept filled with notions of power and control. Most students don't consider themselves leaders, or holding leadership potential. In fact, when questioned they're more likely to say they are followers, though always with a lump in the throat. (I'd rather be followed than led--and so would they). And then we begin to explore the dynamics of leadership.
One can't have the conversation without first understanding the role of follower. One student said, "In some ways, the follower is more important than the leader." Another student offered that "It wasn't until I understood the dance between leader and follower that I really began to understand the role of leader-that you can't have influence without followers. In fact, you can't be a leader without followers. Amazing! It changes the way I look at the whole issue--and where I think my role is as a leader."
Next year, I plan to have my students read the entire book!
Summary of "Be the Horse or the Jockey"
Why would I choose to be a Follower? What's the benefit to me? What does being a Follower really mean? Is following just the "absence of leadership"? What exactly do Followers do? These are just a few of the questions that leadership expert Jeanne Gulbranson tackles in Be the Horse or the Jockey: 110 Tips for Followers.and Leaders.
Using the metaphor of a professional horse race, Gulbranson makes a compelling case for the strategic and practical benefits of choosing to be a Follower. By taking the self-guided Comfort and Value Quiz, readers discover if they have a preferred role as a Follower or a Leader or if they are more comfortable as Flip-Floppers, moving back and forth from one role to the other. As Gulbranson clearly illustrates, because even those who are Leaders most of the time are also Followers some of the time, the lessons in Be the Horse or the Jockey apply to both groups of people in the leader/follower relationship. To support both Followers and Leaders, Gulbranson provides an innovative four-step Followership Process that serves as the framework for the 110 tips and techniques that take the uncertainty out of what-to-do-now.
Be the Horse or the Jockey is liberally sprinkled with humorous and poignant real-life anecdotes, examples and Life Lessons that bring on a laugh or a sigh in this fresh, how-to-be-successful guide.
Innovative and thought-provoking, Be the Horse or the Jockey: 110 Tips for Followers.and Leaders provides a clear and memorable approach to the strategic and practical role of Followers.and Leaders.
Be the Horse or the Jockey may be purchased on www.amazon.com |
