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The Evolution of Leadership – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Marshall Goldsmith

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is the world authority in helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people, and their teams. He was recently chosen as the inaugural winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Leadership by the Harvard Institute of Coaching. Dr. Goldsmith is the only two-time Thinkers50 #1 Leadership Thinker in the World. He has been ranked as the World’s #1 Executive Coach and Top Ten Business Thinker the past eight years.

Dr. Goldsmith is the author or editor of 38 books, which have sold over 2.5 million copies, been translated into 32 languages, and become listed bestsellers in 12 countries. His three New York Times bestsellers are Triggers, MOJO, and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.

Dr. Goldsmith is one of a select few executive advisors who have been asked to work with over 150 major CEOs and their management teams. He is a fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources and winner of the Lifetime Achievement in Teaching Award from the Institute for Management Studies. His work has been recognized by almost every professional organization in this field.

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Think back on our history as human beings. Many of our stereotypes of leadership are from a past that no longer exists. They come from a yesterday that is very disconnected from today and miles from the world of tomorrow. These images from the past are reinforced in our literature, TV, movies, video games, and art, and they can prevent our understanding of what great leadership is today and what it will look like in the future.

For instance, here’s a brief walk through the evolution of leadership.

• The Cave People – Leadership Through Physical Strength: Thousands of years ago, our ancestors lived in a brutal and harsh world. Small clans grouped together in caves to protect themselves from the elements. Leaders were usually strong, young men and ruled through physical strength.
• The Land Owners – Leadership Through Control of the Land: As we evolved, humans began to gather and store crops. Ownership and control of the land became the key to power. Leaders were not necessarily the strongest physically; they were the people who controlled the land. Control of resources became the key to power.
• The Royalty – Leadership Through the Family: For the last few thousand years, the source of most leadership was often the family. Kings and queens ruled with no need to justify their power, since they were declared to have been descended from God. The simple solution for anyone who criticized or challenged royalty was to kill them.
• The Church – Leadership Through the Religion: Historically, the church provided spiritual leadership for the people and supported the royal families. Often members of the royal family, the Church had the ability to determine what was right or wrong, and criticism of its doctrine was not tolerated. Critics were referred to as heretics and were susceptible to excommunication, torture, or even death.
• The Military – Leadership Through Power: While the Church provided the moral case for royalty, the military provided the power needed to keep the members of the ruling class on their thrones. In the world of kings, the strongest army won. Military leaders were often related to the ruling families, but not always. Sometimes generals worked their way up the hierarchy and were rewarded for their loyalty, bravery, intelligence, and competence.
• The Academy – Leadership Through Education: Until very recent times, the best formal education was largely reserved for the elite. Liberal education separated the elite from the masses and along with the Church and the military, reinforcing the status quo of the country.
• The Master – Leadership Through Skill: As the merchant class began to rise, a new type of leader emerged, the master. The master was typically an expert in a certain trade who taught his skills to a younger apprentice. The apprentice practiced the craft, and eventually became the master to a new apprentice.
• The Politician – Leadership Through Support: Eventually the subjects of royalty and the colonists of royalty rebelled. In the early democracies, the power and control was in the hands of an elite group. Only in recent years, and in some countries, has democracy evolved to a level of true representation of the people. Politicians, like kings and queens, have historically been more focused on maintaining power than on building collaborative relationships.
• The Business Owner – Leadership Through Control of the Corporation: With the advent of capitalism came the rise in business. While these early entrepreneurs may not have been descended from royalty and wealth, they were able to acquire wealth and pass it on to their family members. Since they owned the controlling interest in the stock of the corporation, they maintained ultimate decision-making power.
• The Manager – Leadership Through Promotion: As organizations grew and the families of founders became less focused on leading their companies, a new class of leaders emerged – professional managers. The key role of these managers was to protect and grow the assets of the owners. These managers typically worked their way up through the company and were rewarded by promotion for their effort, achievement, and loyalty.

Common Characteristics of Leadership in the Past

As we look at leadership in the past we can see that leaders historically had the following common characteristics:

• Leadership was local. From the tiny world of the cave, to the village, to the city, to the country, the history of leadership has almost all been domestic.
• Leaders managed uniformity. Throughout history almost all leaders have been men who represented the ruling class of their countries. Women were not even considered for most leadership roles, or even many occupational roles. Along with being the same sex, leaders were the same race and religion and were brought up in the same culture.
• Leaders managed very slowly changing technology. Throughout most of history, leaders managed technology that did not change at all, or changed very slowly. Revolving masters could prosper for generations without being concerned about the impact of new technology.
• Leaders knew the answers and did not encourage differing opinions. Religious leaders, masters, academics, and generals were assumed to have the right answer. Followers who disagreed with authority were often punished severely by being fired, excommunicated, ostracized, or even killed.
• Leadership was top down. Most leadership involved immediate control over direct reports, as opposed to team building or building peer relationships. Being able to influence colleagues without direct-line authority was not a skill that was required for success.
• Leaders were bosses. From kings to generals to managers, leaders had one important quality in common. They had clear power over the people whom they led. They could easily punish those who did not demonstrate loyalty. Once they acquired power, they usually did their best to keep it. One definition of boss, as a noun, is “a person who makes decisions, exercises authority, and dominates.” Another definition, as a verb, is “to order about” or “to be master over.” The leader of the past was clearly the boss!

These characteristics of leaders may (or may not) have been effective in the past. In practical terms, it doesn’t matter. These characteristics will not work for the most important leaders of the future.

The one over-arching theme from studying leaders of the past is that, in some very important way, leaders were supposed to be superior to the people they were leading. Kings were descended from God, clergy were closer to God, masters were more skilled, academics had more knowledge, generals had more experience, owners had more wealth, politicians had more support, and cave leaders had more strength.

Almost all movies, videos, TV shows, and games reinforce the concept that great leaders are, in some way, superior to the people that they lead. Looking at the history of leadership, it is very easy to understand why servant leadership is such a recent concept: managers were actually referred to as “superiors”!

As the world and its people are evolving, so is leadership. The leader of the future will have qualities that are clearly different from the leader of the past, and many of the characteristics of yesterday’s leader will not work for tomorrow’s leaders.

The Leader of the Future

Accenture invited me to partner with them in a two-year research project that compared the qualities of leaders of the past with those that would be required of leaders in the future.1 Instead of interviewing current CEOs and leaders, who would not be leading the organizations of the future, we interviewed 200 future CEOs from around the world. A few qualities were seen as clearly more important than the leader of the past. Looking back on this study years later, I find the direction of the predictions from these high potential leaders to have been proven to be amazingly accurate. If anything, the degree of change, or the speed of change in the importance of new leadership qualities may have been understated.

Combining this research with all that I’ve learned since the study’s completion, I can share seven key trends that have emerged and will dramatically impact the leader of the future, why the changing world calls for an end to old assumptions about leadership, and how a new model is emerging to fit today’s world.

1. From Thinking Locally to Thinking Globally

   Globalization is a trend that will continue to have a major impact on the leaders of the future. Even 20 years ago, leaders in some huge companies could focus on their own countries or, at most, their own regions. Those days are rapidly screeching to a halt! The trend toward globally connected markets and globally integrated organizations is going to become even stronger in the future.

2. From Requiring Uniformity to Seeking Diversity

   In the past, seeking diversity was not even ‘on the radar screen’ for most leaders. In fact, the leaders of the past usually required uniformity in the workforce – and eliminated the possibility of diversity. As the importance of globalization continues to increase, leaders will need to appreciate and strive for diversity in new and different ways. They will have to understand not only the economic and legal differences, but also the social and behavioral differences that are part of working around the world. The most effective leaders of the future will understand that developing an understanding of other people and other cultures is not just an obligation; it is a requirement. Even better, it is an opportunity!

3. From Understanding One Technology to Becoming Technologically Savvy

   In the past, the core technology of organizations changed very slowly or, in many cases, not at all. Leaders of the past could understand their company’s core technology, develop enough expertise in this technology to lead their people, and stay as current as they needed to without a huge effort. That is not the case with the rapid pace of technological change today. This does not mean that every future leader will be a gifted technician or a computer programmer. It does mean that leaders should understand how the intelligent use of new technology can help their organizations; recruit, develop, and maintain a network of technologically current people; know how to make and manage investments in new technology; and are positive role models in leading the use of new technology.

4. From Leader as Knower to Leader as Learner

   In the past, leaders generally knew more about what they were doing than the people they led. That is why masters were called masters and apprentices were called apprentices. In the future, the most important leaders will be managing people who know far more about what they are doing than the leaders do. In the new world with its global organizations, diverse stakeholders, and rapidly changing technology, the leader often knows less than the people he or she leads. The higher the leader moves up the organizational chain of command, the more this is true.

5. From Eliminating Challenge to Encouraging Constructive Dialogue

   Leaders of past went out of their way not only to discourage challenge, but also to eliminate challenge. For instance, providing negative feedback to landowners could lead to starvation and providing negative feedback to royalty could lead to execution. In a world where leaders knew more than their followers, the drawbacks of leading by intimidation were not nearly as great as they are today. Today, leaders who cut off the flow of constructive dialogue run the risk of becoming obsolete in a very short period of time.

6. From Leading in the Hierarchy to Building Alliances and Teams

   Leadership has traditionally been thought of as a top down, hierarchical process. In the world of the past, with leaders controlling knowledge and subordinates doing what they were told, this model seemed to make sense. It is becoming increasingly hard to determine these roles and in industries as diverse as energy, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals, the same organization may be your customer, supplier, partner, and your competitor. In this new world, building positive, long-term, win-win relationships with many different types of stakeholders is critical.

7. From the Leader as Boss to the Leader as Facilitator

   As we consider all of the trends listed, it becomes clear that the leader of the future needs very different skills and qualities than the leader of the past. The leader as boss told people what to do and how to do it. In the old world, for all of the reasons that we discussed, this was understandable. The leader of the future will not have all the answers. The leader of the future is not only learning as opposed to knowing, the leader of the future is a facilitator who is helping everyone on the team learn.

One of, if not the, greatest leader I have ever met is Frances Hesselbein. Frances retired after serving for 14 years as the CEO of the Girl Scouts of America. Peter Drucker said that Frances was the most effective executive he had ever met, and Peter Drucker never made remarks like this casually. Frances did an amazing job of changing an organization that was, for a time, mired in the past and not moving toward the future. As the CEO of the Girl Scouts, she developed a wonderful doctrine, Tradition with a future! She never demeaned the past; in fact, she celebrated the wonderful traditions of the past. On the other hand, she did not live in the past. She realized that, in her organization, the leader of the future would have to be very different than the leader of the past.

As a CEO, Frances was remarkably ahead of her time. She coined the phrase circular leadership to describe her leadership style and the style that she wanted to promote in all of her leaders. She envisioned herself as a person in the center of circular relationships, not as a boss sitting on top of a hierarchy.

Frances saw herself as a servant leader who was there to facilitate the success of her team – not as a boss who was there to tell people what to do and how to do it. She was constantly learning and helping others learn. She encouraged constructive disagreement. She did an amazing job of building alliances inside and outside the organization.

As you think about your role as the leader of the future, remember the Frances Doctrine of tradition with a future. Whatever you have done in the past – or other leaders have done in the past – is over. Recognize all that the leaders you have known in the past have done right. Appreciate what you can learn from their mistakes.

Focus on the future! By understanding the past, you can see why leaders ended up being the way they were, you can also see how leadership needs to change in order for organizations to thrive in the new world – a world where leaders do not strive to be superior to the people they lead – a world where leaders strive to develop people who will become, in many ways, superior to the leader!

Work Is Love Made Visible is a wonderful title for this collection of essays. In our new world, the role of a leader will be earned not granted. Leaders will manage knowledgeable workers who know much about what they are doing – more than their leaders know. In the new world of leadership, great leaders will be facilitators who love the process of leadership – not experts who know more than their co-workers. Great leaders will create an environment for learning where each member of the organization can work – and make their love visible – in a world that respects them for their unique contributions.

Reflection Questions

1. Think about your leadership journey, as a leader or as one being led, which qualities and characteristics do you find most valuable in leaders – those of the leaders of the past or those of the leaders of tomorrow?
2. Who do you think is a good role model of tomorrow’s leaders? What qualities do they exude?
3. How can you enhance your own leader of the future qualities?
4. Why is creating an environment where work is love made visible even more important for leaders of the future than it has been for leaders of the past?

Note

1.  The result of this project was the book Global Leadership: The Next Generation, which I coauthored with Cathy Greenberg, Alastair Robertson, and Maya Hu-Chan. Valuable contributions to the research were made by Warren Bennis and John O’Neil.