Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7: POWER AND LEADERSHIP

Those who want to lead are not fit to and those who are fit to, don't want to! (an old proverb)

Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never constant. It depends on the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected on to him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic. The sardonic is all that permits him to move within himself. Without this quality, even occasional greatness will destroy a man.[i]

Leadership is a form of social dominance, and leaders can exert powerful influences on the behaviours, ideals and feelings of the led. This chapter is concerned with rank and how, in humans, dominance expresses itself through the use of various forms of power. We will note that leaders can use their power in many different ways. They can use it to gain recognition, status and superiority for themselves and in so doing can act to suppress, intimidate, subordinate and structuralise the hierarchy and make sharper the boundaries between insider and outsider (the good and the bad). On the other hand leaders can act to relax, encourage and nurture subordinates, helping them to reduce their dependence on leaders, to de-structuralise the hierarchy and soften boundaries. To obtain a leadership position, obviously requires some type of power. However, what this and the next chapter will try to explore is that styles of leadership do not exist in a vacuum but are influenced by social contexts, external and internal stresses, and by the demands of followers.

Notes on Power

In evolutionary theory power is defined by reproductive success - for sociobiologist that is the ultimate in power. Mostly, however, social power is explored in the contexts of the relationships and motivations of people. When we explore the social origins of power, which followed the advent of agriculture,[ii] we can see this as a history of...