Effective Leadership throughout history
Today and in this increasingly dynamic and challenging world, where the way of leading and managing work teams within organizations has changed, it is essential to seek new paradigms; The changing and diverse context forces managers to develop a more passionate style, connected to emotions and self-knowledge. The challenge is to clearly establish and define what is sought or wants to achieve to be agents of changes and motivators and in turn that they connect with the objectives and goals of an organization or company. Faced with this great challenge, you can talk about the commitment and responsibility of leadership, which you must seek, know and be aware of how your organization, and thereby can create strategies that help find balance and work efficiency.
Leadership is a term that has evolved over time and has had different approaches, and the idea of defining it opens a varied range of opinions. Since very primitive times, where there has always been a hierarchy system, it can be said that this concept has been present, in the case of the man where he had to hunt and needed the help of a group, his primitive tyrannical style had to be modified because He had to ensure the collaboration of the weakest. With the evolution of civilizations, those who called leaders and others who called followers, since the time of the Egyptians there were these terms and continued evolving until today there were every day of the Egyptians and continued to evolve until today. As Paige (1977) says, “that all societies have created myths to provide acceptable explanations for the mastery of their leaders and the subission of their subordinates. However, the pattern of behaviors that are seen as acceptable in leaders, differs from one time to another and from one culture to another. This is also related to the way in which various societies have been constituted, from the anthropological point of view, these can be classified according to the degree to which different groups within a society have access to different advantages, such as resources, prestige or power ".
As civilizations progressed, history has allowed identifying people who have been influential, both positively and negatively, in the development of humanity. This is why it can be said that leadership is more than a capacity, it is a quality or means to influence, it is a motivation, persuasion, inspiration that some people possess, in most cases in a positive way. “Leadership is not a merely passive status issue or mere possession of a combination of features. Rather it seems to be a relationship of working methods between the members of a group, in which the leader acquires a status thanks to active participation and demonstration to carry out cooperative tasks until they are completed ”.
A leader must know how to use his capabilities to face different situations, make the necessary decisions, even under adverse conditions, which will help him interact with the environment and with people so that he can effectively and effectively direct an organization. Thus, leadership can be defined as the set of capabilities that a person has to understand, listen and value other people. However, you have to pay attention and know when a person is exercising true leadership and those who only seek to benefit themselves, a leader presents qualities that will qualify as a leader. It has been observed that, throughout history there are people who have had a great influence and have become positive leaders because they have given everything for their followers, preaching equality and freedom; as well as negative leaders, who manipulate others to perform actions for him or take advantage of their power to achieve their goals.
Historically, some leaders have been very positive because they have left important traces for their stories that have inspired many idealists in the world, leaders who have been successful for their perseverance, for their struggle, for their convictions and values, for their charism and intelligence, for the search for justice, equality and freedom. Example of some positive leaders were:
- Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Nelson Mandela
- Martin Luther King
- Steve Jobs
- John Paul II
On the contrary, there were also and still negative leaders who have characteristics with very particular negative aspects, who have taken advantage of their power of conviction, persuasion and with clear intelligence that have led them to handle masses at will and convince them that His ideas are correct and unique, where many caused millions of deaths and devastating wars for humanity, regimes characterized by cruelty when dealing with social issues, torture and economic problems that have led people to extreme poverty and humanitarian crisis.
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