Leadership: Leaders, Followers, Environments

Susceptible followers

Albert Einstein, who left Nazi Germany in the 1930s for the freedom that America offered him, was alarmed during the early 1950s at the similarities he saw between Nazi Germany and the hearings of Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin in his pursuit of communists. The U.S. House of Representatives, led by McCarthy and the House Committee on Un-American Activities, conducted investigations—some people called them witch hunts—in search of communist sympathizers. After coming to the United States, Einstein denounced McCarthyism and racism in America with the same fervor that he had criticized the Nazis in Germany. In 1951, Einstein wrote to his friend Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, drawing an analogy between what had happened in Germany and what was taking place in the United States:

“The German calamity of years ago repeats itself: People acquiesce without resistance and align themselves with the forces of evil.”³¹

The fourth category of followers might be called susceptible in the sense that they either acquiesce without resistance or align themselves with toxic leaders. Why do some followers go along, while others actually support and encourage a toxic leader’s agenda? Susceptibility of followers to bad leaders springs from both internal and external sources. Chapter 7 further develops these themes, but it is useful here to discuss the topic briefly. Internally, followers might be susceptible due to their personal characteristics and traits, including unmet ...