Save the dates for the
4th Global Followership Conference
May 28-30, 2025
Hosted by Claremont McKenna College
Claremont, California
Calling all leaders and innovators!
Are you working for sustainable, resilient, thriving organizations and communities?
Have you seen strong interpersonal skills support breakthrough innovation?
This conference exists to elevate and illuminate followership skills and its many, many benefits to people, their careers, organizations, and society.
We believe there has been an over-focus on leadership and that hasn’t served us. It isn’t resulting in meaningful engagement, equity, or real power for us all. It isn’t optimizing human potential.
We advocate a shift from leader-centric approaches to partner-centric ones – and a restoration of balance in academia and industry and beyond. This is essential 21st-century knowledge.
Come join us to learn cutting edge research and practical tips, tools and techniques you can use right away.
The future is collaborative. We need everyone to both lead and follow well.
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Have a great day!
Our gracious 2025 host!
A BIT OF FOLLOWERSHIP HISTORY
Almost 20 years ago, Claremont was the site of the “Rethinking Followership” Kravis-de Roulet Leadership Conference, held on February 24-25, 2006. The proceedings of that conference, which included noted scholars and authors, Robert Kelley, Joseph Rost, Ira Chaleff, Jean Lipman-Blumen, Michaael Maccoby, Bruce Avolio, Robert Lord, Michael Hogg, Michelle Bligh, David Collinson, and Barbara Kellerman, were the foundation for the book, The Art of Followership.
ABOUT OUR HOST
Claremont, the “town of trees, and Ph.D.s” is located 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, right up against the San Gabriel mountains, which rise to an elevation of over 10,000 feet. Its nickname comes from city-sponsored care of its many trees, and the seven Claremont Colleges.
The Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is the host institution. The college was founded in 1946 as Claremont Men’s College, with a name change shortly after admitting women students. The campus resides on the native lands of the Kizh nation, which includes the Seranno and Gabrielio indigenous tribes.
The Kravis Leadership Institute, which recently celebrated its 30thanniversary, is one of the top undergraduate programs for leadership in the nation, and CMC was recently named as one of the inaugural class of colleges and universities recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as a school of “Leadership for Public Purpose” -- recognizing institutions that have committed to campus-wide efforts to advance leadership in pursuit of public goods like justice, equity, diversity, and liberty.
Official Conference Hotel
The DoubleTree Claremont looks forward to welcoming you to our hotel! We are located less than a mile from campus, and shuttle service will be provided.
Please use Group Code: GFC to book your stay between 5/27/25 and 5/31/25.
Single/Double Rate: $179.00 + taxes
Booking Deadline: 5/7/25
2025 Conference Co-Chairs
Dr. Ronald Riggio, Ph.D.
Ron is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology and former Director of the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College. Dr. Riggio is a social/personality psychologist and leadership scholar with more than two dozen authored or edited books and more than 250 articles/book chapters. He was co-editor (along with Ira Chaleff and Jean Lipman-Blumen) of The Art of Followership.
Sharna Fabiano, MFA
Sharna is an artist, coach, and author of Lead & Follow: The Dance of Inspired Teamwork. She hosts the Lead & Follow Podcast, interviewing members of the Followership community on their latest research, teaching, and community work. An internationally recognized tango artist, Sharna currently teaches at California State University Long Beach.
Voices of the community
Many conference presenters have been recent guests on the Lead & Follow podcast, hosted by Sharna Fabiano. Learn about the latest followership research and thinking and get inspired for the next Global Followership Conference!
Available anywhere you listen to podcasts.
"The design of this conference promises to take another leap forward in our thinking, dialogue, and influence in the world, which is in desperate need of healthier and more conscious ways of leading and following."
- IRA CHALEFF, Author, The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders
"...a wonderful experience—perhaps the best organized and most efficient conference that I have ever attended... What stands out, however, was the deep, focused learning on followership, and the good fellowship among the attendees."
- RON RIGGIO, Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology, Claremont McKenna College
Special thanks to our media partners
Ideas for Leaders summarizes the thinking of the foremost researchers and experts on leadership and management practice from the world's top business schools and management research institutions.
Developing Leaders Quarterly connects thought and practice leaders on the issues that are critical for the future of leadership and organization.
Special Issue on Followership
We are pleased to share details of a NEW special issue within the Journal of Management Development, aligned with the 3rd Global Followership Conference (2024), reflecting the topicality of followership with academics, students and practitioners.
This issue will provide conceptual and empirical insights into the ways in which followership behaviours have impact, across a wide range of organisational contexts. It will encourage readers to consider the implications of followership development at individual, group and organisation levels, whilst also providing resources to embed this in practice. Through this, the issue will encourage readers to challenge their own and others thinking and to place emphasis on the importance of context for followership.