Rules for Followers

By Barbara
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In September the University of Toronto Press will publish my next book. It’s titled Why We Follow Leaders – and Why We Don’t. These four are among the questions to which the book provides answers. First, what are our rewards for following? Second, what are our punishments for not following? Third, what are our rewards for not following? Fourth, what are our punishments for following? Today’s post is about, you guessed it, followers. Or, more precisely, rules for followers.

For daring not to follow where President Donald Trump led, he accused Alaska’s Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of being a “traitor.”* Three other Republican senators chose a different path. Though they had made plain, in public, their reservations, they nevertheless caved, they folded. They voted to confirm.

But before you accuse them of being spineless, craven, abject lapdogs, remember the long history of followers who seek to avoid the punishments of their leaders no matter how decadent or depraved, no matter their depredations.

Here then are ten rules for followers who fear the fury of their leader. They are culled from 26 pointers provided by Stendhal in his great 19th century novel, The Charter House of Parma.**  

  • Always track gossip. Be alert to calumnies against you.
  • Recognize that your allies might not be able to help you. Have backup plans.
  • Anticipate attacks against you from rivals for the leader’s favor. Thwart them and strike back.
  • Avoid becoming popular so that your leader never feels threatened.
  • Be prepared to defend yourself effectively – but respectfully.
  • Do not expect the law to protect you.
  • Never criticize your leader, it will arouse suspicion.
  • Cultivate allies among your leader’s family and friends.
  • Make your leader see you as indispensable – but not threatening.
  • If your influence wanes, invent a conspiracy against your leader and punish its members to impress him.

Some things never change. Like followers so frightened they follow bad leaders.

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*Senator Murkowski had the temerity to vote against confirming Todd Blanche as U.S. Attorney General.  

**This post is based on this article. Click on the link for additional tips on “surviving autocracy.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/books/review/stendhal-charterhouse-of-parma-machiavelli-the-prince-autocracy.html

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Published by Barbara

Barbara Kellerman was Founding Executive Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, a member of the Harvard faculty for over twenty years, and a Fellow at the Center for five years. Kellerman has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, Uppsala, and Christopher Newport Universities, as well as at Dartmouth, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She also served as Director of Graduate Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson, and as Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the University of Maryland. Kellerman received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and her M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. (in Political Science) degrees from Yale University. She was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and three Fulbright fellowships. At Uppsala University she held the Fulbright Chair in American Studies. Kellerman was cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and is author and editor of many books including Bad Leadership; Followership; The End of Leadership; Professionalizing Leadership, and Leadership from Bad to Worse. Kellerman has appeared on media outlets such as CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, Reuters, and BBC, and has contributed articles and reviews to the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Harvard Business Review. She has spoken to audiences all over the world including Berlin, London, Moscow, Melbourne, Sao Paolo, Jerusalem, Mumbai, Toronto, Kyoto, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Sydney, and Seoul. The title of her next book is Why We Follow Leaders – and Why We Don’t. It will be published in September 2026 by the University of Toronto Press. Kellerman regularly posts at https://barbarakellerman.com/articles/