Leadership has evolved over time. That doesn’t mean we discarded older types, we’ve simply added new ones to our collective leader toolboxes. You could consider this in multiple ways, but it seems to me that each type of leadership became more sophisticated and more oriented towards compassion, and ultimately built towards individual leadership.

Transactional

Control was very useful in the early days of human civilization, to orient groups toward a common purpose.

Transformational

A nuance was introduced when we realized that maybe those being led might share some of the motivation of the leader and willingly participate in disruption.

Charismatic

We came to see that things could be a little less brutal, and could rely even more on winning hearts and minds towards the leader’s vision by leveraging charisma to inspire.

Democratic

Once people expected to be influenced mentally and emotionally (not just physically) by their leaders, they also began to expect to be included and to be able to participate.

Laissez-Faire

These groups began to seek empowerment to make decisions in addition to the leader’s guidance or even instead of it.

Servant

But we soon realized that freedom without guidance can be hard to manage towards desired outcomes, and that we actually need someone to support us in this; essentially leading from behind and serving others by supporting and uplifting them.

Emergent/Distributed

Today, fully supported and informed and consulted, we can see acts of leadership arise anywhere as needed, and from anyone.

Who Are These People In The Graphic?

Note that I am not implying these historical people in the graphic are the sole originators for the noted styles – all cultures, all countries and all time periods have produced great leaders, of all styles. Rather, I am trying to speak to a process of refinement and growth of our collective understanding of leadership as human beings. I chose examples that I thought might be relatively well known to the widest group of readers. Maybe they will bring other leaders to your mind, too!

But….in case you can’t guess who these historical figures are, starting from the bottom and working towards the top they are:

  • Alexander the Great – Transactional
  • William Wallace (Braveheart) – Transformational
  • King Louis the XIV (the Sun King) – Charismatic
  • Queen Victoria – Democratic
  • Herbert Hoover – Laissez-Faire
  • Jimmy Carter – Servant
  • Everyone/Anyone – Emergent