I found this reading very interesting, particularly looking at how the things people look for in leaders hasn’t changed much despite the massive changes to our society. Being tall and strong aren’t particularly helpful in today’s world for leaders, and yet these qualities are still surprisingly sought after. We see this play out time and time again especially in US politics, as candidates who play up the strong man identity tend to do better in elections.
I also found it an interesting thought that for the vast majority of human history leaders operated on a small, interconnected and familial scale. This does make sense to a certain extent, especially as you go back thousands of years. However, even five thousand years ago we did see certain societies operating on a far larger scale, such as in Egypt and China. While within those societies there was still a lot of small scale leadership as well, particularly in Egypt we still see hierarchal and top down leadership styles, even five thousand years ago.
I also found it interesting that throughout history we generally look towards the same physical characteristics in our leaders. I guess this just shows our implicit bias that we might not be aware of.
I think you bring up an interesting point about how we tend to look for certain physical characteristics in a leader when, in fact, those characteristics are not needed. I agree with Katelyn’s comment about our implicit biases, and how deeply ingrained these ideas are in our world. It makes me wonder how long it will take for us to realize this and change the way we evaluate our leaders.
I also think it is extremely interesting how most humans operate within small groups, however it comes as no surprise to me. I think that humans function better in smaller groups where everyone can properly communicate but this is not always feasible and doable. On the other hand we see implications of historically small approaches to leadership as we practice delegation in larger groups so the significance is still very much evident in modernity.