Thank you for an amazing
4th Global Followership Conference
May 28-30, 2025
Hosted by Claremont McKenna College
Claremont, California
GFC 2025 welcomes Dr. Robert Kelley
Dr. Kelley pioneered the concept of "Followership" in his best-selling book The Power of Followership and his Harvard Business Review article "In Praise of Followers.”
At this year’s conference, he links his past work with his thinking on the current era: the trends, the issues, and the responsibilities of those acting as followers every day and of those working in the followership field itself.
Special Guest Panelists
SCHOLAR GUEST PANEL
- Melissa Carsten – Dr. Carsten studies leadership and followership in organizations and the role that implicit followership theories play in leader-follower interactions.
- Kevin Lowe – Dr. Lowe received an Emerald Citation of Excellence, recognizing articles of high impact over the most recent 3 years, for his review and extension of the field of followership.
- Mary Uhl-Bien – Dr. Uhl-Bien produced several cutting-edge theoretical contributions to the field, including Leader-Member Exchange Theory, Followership Theory, and Relational Leadership Theory.
PRACTITIONER GUEST PANEL
- Wendy M. Edmonds – Dr. Edmonds is an educator and organizational development consultant. Her trainings improve followership skills and reduce toxic followership within universities, community groups, and nonprofits.
- Samantha Hurwitz – Samantha is co-founder of FliP U and the Global Followership Conference. With Dr. Marc Hurwitz, she developed the first integrated Leadership/Followership model and has delivered followership training for 20 years.
- Ruth Sims – Dr. Sims is an organizational development and communications professional and followership expert based in Australia.
Explore the power of partnership
Join us for an unforgettable conference experience where we'll exchange the latest research; share best practices for teaching, training and team building; generate new ideas and insights; and co-create a growing global community.
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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"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 2025 sponsors
Indiana Wesleyan University’s Division of Leadership and Followership Studies is one of the first academic units in the world to provide focus on the topic of followership in several of its programs. The university and the division are widely acclaimed in the academic community for being “out front” in connecting both leadership and followership as essential to organizations.
#1 ONLINE PHD
PhD in Organizational
Leadership named #1
online PhD in the U.S.
by Forbes Advisor.
PROGRAMS
Associates, Bachelors,
Masters, and Doctoral
programs studying
leadership and
followership.
PARTNERSHIPS
Organizational
partnerships
Custom work with
organizations
Certificate programs
Essentials of Followership: Rethinking the Leadership Paradigm with Purpose
This highly acclaimed new book, now in its second edition, explores different ways of thinking about leaders and followers as roles and as relationship-based qualities instead of mere ranks in the organization. The authors provide the student and the scholar key components of followership, inspiring leaders and followers in organizations to adopt transformed attitudes and actions that move beyond the constraints of current stereotypes, catalyzing stronger, healthier, and more effective communities of purpose.
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.
Lead & Follow Podcast
Lead & Follow offers a candid discussion of lead and follow dynamics within teamwork, collaboration, and professional development. Host Sharna Fabiano talks with educators, consultants, and professionals to explore the relational dance between leadership and followership, and how to become excellent in both roles.