The Common Purpose and Core Values
For vivid historical studies of the relationships among leaders, followers, and purposes, I recommend Gary Wills, Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).
Who Does a Follower Serve?
An extensive examination of how the roles of servant and leader, or servant and follower, can be fused is found in Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (New York: Paulist Press, 1977).
For a comparably rich examination of service and the appropriate use of power, see Peter Block, Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 1993).
Power in the Leader-Follower Relationship
I found a compelling discussion on the power to choose how we react—even in the horrific environment of a concentration camp—in Victor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (New York: Washington Square Press, 1959, 1984).
Courage of the Follower
For a profound and beautiful exploration of courage displayed before senior executives, read David Whyte, The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America (New York: Currency Doubleday, 1994). The chapter “Fire in the Voice: Speaking Out at Work” is especially powerful.
Finding Equal Footing with the Leader
I drew on a moving account of helping fellow sentient beings, regardless of their formal relationship to us, that I found in Ram Dass and Paul Gorman, How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (New York: Knopf, 1987).