The unicist ontogenetic structure of leadership describes the nature of leadership in order to be able to use the adequate leadership for any situation. Understanding the nature of leadership is basic to find the natural place to develop one’s activities. It also helps to understand how to influence people and how to respond to the influence of others.

The basics of leadership

Leadership is based on the need to sustain one’s authority. The participation of others is a condition of leadership. A leader is such because s/he is followed.

Therefore, in terms of the unicist logic, participation is the active function of leadership and the energy conservation function is given by the power a leader has to impose her/his authority. But this is a sort of paradox.

The energy conservation function is given by the power the individual “does not use”. If the power is used it consumes energy and, in fact, a double amount of energy, because:

• To impose something there is a need to exert power and consume energy.
• When power is exerted, authority is being lost, because it means that the authority of the individual has not been accepted. And in this case, an additional amount of energy must be invested to reconstruct the value of the authoritative role.

Participation poses another paradoxical dilemma:

• When the authority of the leader is extreme, for example a religious leader, the participation is not possible.
• When the participation is extreme, there is no possibility to accept an authoritative role.

(*) This development is one of the “100 major unicist discoveries that are changing the world”:
https://www.unicist.net/management/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/100-major-unicist-discoveries.pdf

Unicist Press Committee

NOTE: The Unicist Research Institute was the pioneer in using the unicist logical approach in complexity science research and became a private global decentralized leading research organization in the field of human adaptive systems. It has an academic arm and a business arm. https://www.unicist.net/management/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/turi.pdf