The Unicist ontology of leadership describes the nature of leadership in order to be able to use the adequate leadership for a specific situation.
A leader is such because s/he is followed. Therefore 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:
1) To impose something there is a need to exert power and consume energy.
2) When power is exerted, authority is being lost, because it means that the authority of the individual has not been accepted. And an additional amount of energy must be invested to reconstruct the value of the authoritative role.
To improve one’s ability to lead, it is necessary to reinforce the maximal strategy based on the Exemplifying Charismatic Role and expand the concept of the Personalized Authoritative Paternalistic Role.
Excerpted from the “Unicist Ontology of Leadership”