Leadership in collectives

There is an ancient heritage that is common to all of us - and even not only to human beings. It is much more archaic more systemic than the obvious commonalities of all humans. It's about the common characteristics of species living in collectively organized groups which gave them an evolutionary advantage.

These systemic roots of collective behaviour have been uncovered by evolutionary biology just a few years ago.
The rules of successful group behaviour
So what are the key success factors of successful leadership in any collectively organized groups - let's simply call them collectives?
Let's first state some guiding principles …

• Good leadership means successful leadership.
• Successful leadership in turn is a leadership which leads to sustaining collective success.
• Successful leadership goes alongside the human instincts - not against them,
• The ranking within a successful group must be determined by the contribution of the individual to the collective's success.
• The chance to reach a higher rank will stimulate the individual's performance.
• Contributions to the collective's success must be rewarded adequately.

These are the roots of collective success (and failure) which have been deeply engraved into the mental firmware of all of us by evolutionary biology.
These are the rules of successful group behaviour in the struggle of live of all collectively organized groups - for a wolfs pack as well.

The Balance of 2 forces determines the group's success

In successful collectives two fundamental forces are carefully balanced: aggression and commitment.

• In successful groups these forces are allowed to unfold unrestrictedly.
• The common principle of leadership through the best permanently questions the established leadership structures.
• Change is driven by aggression of those who see their chance. This is our heritage form evolutionary biology.
• The winner is rewarded by promotion, privileges and / or appreciation,
• The looser is threatened to move in the opposite direction: getting downgraded, stripped off privileges and being less well regarded.
• But the group will only be successful if the looser accepts the winner's victory - because he /she obviously is the better one.
• To make this possible, adequate rituals for self subordination and conciliation need to be in place in order to effectively terminate the rivalry for both parties.
• As a result of this re-ranking from the group perspective the better one has the higher rank enabling him to contribute even more to the collective success.
• On the other hand the downgraded member has accepted the re-ordering. His contribution is not lost. He is still committed to do his best for the collective.
• The recipe for sustaining group success is the careful balance of aggression and commitment.

In a rapidly changing world where the dynamic is high and re-ranking occurs more often, the binding forces based on self subordination and conciliation must be equally strong. A winning individual is not enough; in the end a winning team is required.