History of Leadership (Blog 2)

       When we look into the past to find answers to things that have happened already or are happening now, we can refer to this as history or history in the making. History provides us with an enormous wealth of factual knowledge and a basis to make claims and inferences when something may or may not of occurred. However, some things in history cannot be given clear and precise dates, leadership being one of them. To this day, its remains unknown of the exact time when the word and concept of leadership was first rationalized and created.  Leadership is known in several if not all societies, from the past and present.

In history we can learn that there were five Eras of Leadership; Tribal, Pre-Classical, Classical, Progressive and Post-Progressive. Using leadership in a Tribal approach would involve the role of a skilled expert, one who is task oriented and full of brutal strength. Tribal leaders are elected based on their agility, size and strength; failure to follow these leaders may result in death. In a pre-classical sense, this was the time of kings and queens who feared death and were concerned with spirituality. This time also involved male dominance, were followers continued to follow because of fear. Moving into the classical era we learn that division of labor is occurring, laborers are inefficient and not indispensible. Chaos is known for the downfall of this policy-driven organization. In the progressive era total quality management was a driven force and this was known as the change game. The best part of this era is the fact that everyone has a value and is worth something. Post-progressive is the era modeled after social change. Follower’s needs are met and a new democratic agenda is set.

Along with learning about these Era’s of Leadership, we can also gather incite on how this factors into our everyday life. The experiences I have encountered through leadership over the past five years have become phenomenal.  Relating my experiences with these concepts, or era’s of leadership is not easy to do, but it can be done. Taking the task oriented concept from a tribal leader and comparing it with the experience I gained from working in the Sky View office, filing paperwork, typing documents and continually performing task after task, to me shows this type of leadership in a sense of duty. Another prime example of my conceptions in leadership as student body president of Antelope Union High School can be examined with that of a more Post-Progressive era. This comparison can be made because in this era we know that the follower’s needs are being met, and an equal partnership in leadership is established. You may ask, well how did you demonstrate or experience this? Simple, I was leading my officer team, who all equally had the opportunity to make suggestions and generate change. No only was I the figurehead for them, but also the student body as a whole. Each of my officers were delegated their own tasks and put in charge of many events and functions, demonstrating a partnership in leadership. So to conclude, we can infer that there are many differences in each era, but the general concept of leadership is intertwined in each.