Ira Chaleff > Quotes

“We must take time out to sharpen the ax or we’ll exhaust ourselves trying to fell trees with a blunt instrument.”
― Ira Chaleff, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up to and for Our Leaders

“there are some values worth standing up for, regardless of shifting cultural mores.”
― Ira Chaleff, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told to Do Is Wrong

“To the young and the not so young who make decisions to obey or not to obey, conscious of their personal responsibility for the outcome regardless of which decision they make, no matter who gave the order.”
― Ira Chaleff, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told to Do Is Wrong

“As distinct from civil disobedience, Intelligent Disobedience works within a system rather than challenging the system itself.”
― Ira Chaleff, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told to Do Is Wrong

“When fires are small, we can smother them with a blanket or a bucket of sand. When they become conflagrations, all we can do is escape with our lives, retreat, and attempt to create fire breaks. So it is with the escalation of a leader with authoritarian tendencies to one who becomes a full-blown tyrant.”
― Ira Chaleff, To Stop a Tyrant: The Power of Political Followers to Make or Brake a Toxic Leader

“Leaders who value good outcomes more than assertion of their own authority understand that serious errors are avoided by the use of Intelligent Disobedience.”
― Ira Chaleff, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told to Do Is Wrong

“once all voices have been heard and a decision is made by those with the authority to make it, if no core values are being violated, supporting that decision is the correct mode.”
― Ira Chaleff, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told to Do Is Wrong

“In healthy systems, dialogue is encouraged to inform the best possible decision.”
― Ira Chaleff, Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You're Told to Do Is Wrong