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M. Childress Blog post 8/25

Wednesday’s readings sparked two thoughts for me. First, in Bass’ “Concepts of Leadership”, he points out that famous philosopher, Aristotle, believed in the need to teach the youth about leadership, yet some 2500 years later, we still struggle to find an accurate description or definition of leadership. However, I noticed two different leadership styles and goals emerging at different times throughout the reading. First, are the leaders who “create myths that allow dominance over subordinates” and use their power and authority to get what they want, or serve the mission they desire in a sort of narcissistic way. On the other hand, the Iliad describes a sort of servant leadership in which the leader that “serves me most, or serves his country best” is the most effective leader. Taoism takes this a step further to empower followers to believe that the successes were due to their efforts, and the leader’s role is to cultivate the self belief and confidence for his or her followers to succeed and thrive, I am very interested to learn more about these tactics, see how they have developed, and also how they have shaped the cultures they consist in. 

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4 Comments

  1. Samuel Hussey Samuel Hussey

    I found your interpretation of the readings very thought provoking and made me excited to learn more about leadership in the humanities throughout the rest of the semester. The different styles of leadership you mentioned definitely stood out to me as something I want to explore more in this class. One quote from Bass’s “Concepts of Leadership” that I enjoyed was “By first serving as a follower, a leader subsequently can best understand his followers”. I immediately thought of several instances where this is true, particularly in the history of monarchies and dynasties. When someone inherits a leadership position and is always in a position of power, they cannot empathize with their followers to understand what their motives are and it has caused the downfalls of many monarchies and dynasties in the past. However, in a democracy like the US, many leaders come from the same small towns as the average follower, so they can best understand the perspective of the masses. This helps the leaders gain their support in a civil way without having to use deceit and threats as Machiavelli suggested if support cannot be gained through peaceful means.

  2. Margot Roussel Margot Roussel

    I really liked how you were able to succinctly compare and contrast the two ideas of leadership. I also am wondering how they shaped the societies around them and who gravitated towards leadership positions.

  3. Zariah Chiverton Zariah Chiverton

    Do you think there are a time and a place for each type of leadership or does one type of leadership always work out better than the other?

  4. Jack Kirkpatrick Jack Kirkpatrick

    Michael, I had a similar initial thought after my first read. The conclusion I came to was that as leaders and leadership continue to evolve over time, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact description or definition of either as they continue to change. For example, a good general in the Roman army would be harsh and cruel in our eyes today, sometimes killing 1 of every 10 soldiers if someone slipped up. However as we may see that as harsh, Rome saw it as necessary. Great work

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