Human Evolution has Given Us What We Need for Good Corporate Leadership
Ivey Business Journal Online › Nbr. 1/2011, January 2011
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Summary
Medicine leaped ahead in effectiveness when it gained a foundation in biology and chemistry. So did engineering when it finally gained a foundation in physics. But leadership, which makes so many things happen in all societies, has never had an equivalent foundation in any science. Several fields of science, including neuroscience and evolutionary biology, are finally in a position to provide that foundation. The author's book, Driven to Lead: Good, Bad, and Misguided Leadership, is an attempt to assemble a unified scientific theory of leadership from the recent groundswell of research into the workings of the human brain as it makes decisions, as well as from recent research into the turning points in people's own evolution. The result, he believes, is an explanation of leadership that addresses such basic questions as: 1. What is leadership? 2. Who is able to exercise leadership? 3. How can leaders resolve seemingly incompatible demands? 4. How can business leaders balance profitability with care for others?
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Human Evolution has Given Us What We Need for Good Corporate Leadership
Medicine leaped ahead in effectiveness when it gained a foundation in biology and chemistry. So did engineering when it finally gained a foundation in physics. But leadership, which makes so many things happen in all societies, has never had an equivalent foundation in any science. Leaders as far back as we know have managed to lead anyway, but it can be argued that there has been at least as much poor or downright evil leadership as there has been good leadership.
There is a need, then, for a theory of leadership built on a scientific foundation. Several fields of science, including neuroscience and evolutionary biolog...See the full content of this document
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