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If we define leadership simply as "influencing others to some purpose" and we define followership as "being influenced by others to accept some purpose", then leadership and followership can be seen as two sides of the same coin. That is, successful leadership has not occurred until at least one follower joins in. Likewise, there can be no followership without someone or something to follow. However, in this latter case, the leadership need not be deliberate or even conscious, that is, followers can follow someone who is not trying to be a leader. This "unconscious leadership" is a dubious concept however. Many would claim that it is not leadership at all because there is no deliberate intention to lead. Unconscious leading by example may be an example of this.
In On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, Thomas Carlyle demonstrated the concept of leadership as a position of authority. In praising Oliver Cromwell's use of power to bring King Charles I to trial and eventual beheading, he wrote the following: "Let us remark, meanwhile, how indispensable everywhere a King is, in all movements of men. It is strikingly shown, in this very War, what becomes of men when they cannot find a Chief Man, and their enemies can." [3]
From this viewpoint, leadership emerges when an entity as "leader" manages to receive deference from other entities who become "followers". And as the passage from Carlyle demonstrates, the process of getting deference is competitive in that the emerging "leader" draws "followers" from the factions of the prior "leaders."
In the Constitutional Convention of 1787, the American Founders rejected the idea of a monarch. But they still proposed leadership as a position of authority, with the authority split into three powers, the legislative, the executive, and the judiciary. That is, under the American theory, the authority of leadership derived from the power of the voters conveyed through the electoral college. And many individuals shared in leadership as a position of authority, including the many legislators in the Senate and the House of Representatives. [4]
Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, in Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence present the empirical evidence that only humans and chimpanzees, among all the animals living on earth, share a similar tendency for violenceViolence is a general term to describe behavior, usually deliberate, that causes or intends to cause injury to people, animals, or non-living objects. Violence is often associated with aggression. There are essentially two kinds of violence: random violen, territoriality, and competitionCompetition characterises a biochemical, ecologic, economic, political, or sporting activity whereby two or more individuals or groups strive antagonistically against one another for some reward. The reward could consist of: fame, esteem, reputation, or r for uniting behind the one chief male of the land. [5] And the chimpanzees are man's closest species-relative; humans inherited 98% of their genes from the ancestors of the chimpanzees.
In comparison, the bonobosThe Bonobo Pan paniscus , sometimes called the Pygmy Chimpanzee is one of the two species comprising the genus Pan both members of that genus are technically "chimpanzees", though the term is frequently used to refer only to the other member of the genus,, the second-closest species-relative of man, do not unite behind the chief male of the land. The bonobos show deference to an alpha or top-ranking female that, with the support of her coalition of other females, is as strong as the strongest male in the land. That is, if leadership amounts to getting the greatest number of followers, then among the bonobos, a female almost always exerts the strongest and most effective leadership.
Some have argued that, since the bonobo pattern inverts the dominant pattern among chimpanzees and men with regard to whether a female can get more followers than a male, humans and chimpanzees both likely inherited gender bias against women from the ancestors of the chimpanzees; gender biasBias has several different meanings, most relating to an offset or prejudice of some sort. Viewpoint A bias is a prejudice in a general or specific sense, usually in the sense for having a predilection to one particular point of view or ideology. One is s is a geneticGenetics is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. Humans began applying knowledge of genetics in prehistory with the domestication and breeding of plants and animals. In modern research, genetics provides important tools in the i condition of men. And the bias against women having leadership as a position of authority crosses all world culturesThe word culture comes from the Latin root colere (to inhabit, to cultivate, or to honor). In general it refers to human activity; different definitions of culture reflect different theories for understanding, or criteria for valuing, human activity.. As of 2002, Sweden had the highest percentage of women in the legislature at 43%. And the United States, Andorra, Israel, Sierra Leone, and Ireland tied for 57th place with less than 15% of the legislature women. [6] Admittedly, those percentages are significantly higher than the occurrence of female chimpanzees becoming alpha of the community by getting the most followers, but the trends are similar in manifesting a general gender bias across cultures against females getting leadership as a position of authority over followers.