
Ira Chaleff is an executive coach and author whose work centers on followership, leadership, and ethical action within organizations. He is best known for The Courageous Follower and Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right Well in the Wrong Places, influential books that helped frame followership as a serious field within leadership studies.
Ira Chaleff built his career at the intersection of organizational behavior, public service, and ethical dissent. Trained in applied behavioral science, he went on to found Executive Coaching & Consulting Associates and to serve in senior roles with the nonpartisan Congressional Management Foundation, work that kept him close to the realities of power inside institutions. An episode he later recounted from his time at the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1960s — acting without formal authority during a volatile free-speech confrontation — became an early lesson in initiative, responsibility, and the follower’s capacity to alter outcomes. ((https://exe-coach.com/about/ira-chaleff/?utm_source=openai))

Ira Chaleff
A groundbreaking guide empowering followers to partner with leaders, fostering organizational success through active engagement and constructive challenge.

Ira Chaleff
Explores when and how to disobey inappropriate orders, reduce risks, and find better ways to achieve legitimate goals.

Ira Chaleff
A groundbreaking guide empowering followers to partner with leaders, fostering organizational success through active engagement and constructive challenge.

Ira Chaleff
Explores when and how to disobey inappropriate orders, reduce risks, and find better ways to achieve legitimate goals.
"Ira Chaleff shows that a courageous follower can be an enormous asset to a leader"
— Publishers Weekly
"Ira Chaleff offers remarkable insight and practical advice for followers and leaders"
— Walter Ulmer, Jr
"Philip G. Zimbardo said Ira Chaleff's remarkable book gave him new hope for humanity"
— Philip G. Zimbardo
"Ira Chaleff writes with tremendous gusto and a sense of optimism"
— Kirkus Reviews
"Ira Chaleff tackles business transformation with grace and offers real-life solutions"
— Independent Bookselling Today
"John A. Allison said Ira Chaleff provides an essential element of ethical decision making and right action"
— John A. Allison
"Ira Chaleff's focus on the follower end of the equation is long overdue"
— Al Gore
"Library Journal called Ira Chaleff's Intelligent Disobedience thought-provoking, stimulating, and ideal for discussion groups"
— Library Journal
"Beatrice Edwards said Ira Chaleff offers the tools to stand up for doing the right thing"
— Beatrice Edwards