The Art of Influencing Crowds by Coop Douglas;

Author:Coop, Douglas;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Crowd behaviour, Art, people power, power of suggestion, civil disobedience, leadership, revolution, police, world peace, images, words
ISBN: 4770334
Publisher: Andrews UK
Published: 2016-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Leadership and Power

Having discussed the general background of crowd behaviour and how people can be influenced, we must investigate how these things are set in motion, and by whom. However, there is a subtle difference between leading and leadership, a distinction often blurred in recent times. These days the ability to lead or to manage in the workplace is a subject taught in many universities and corporations. But to lead a crowd of people intent on altering something in the established order requires leadership qualities of personality inherent in few. Who could have taught men like Obama, Mandela, or Napoleon?

The terms leader and leadership are commonly applied indiscriminately in corporate institutions, and are often confused with managers. Leaders are found throughout the community: in art, music, business, politics, war, or in any situation where a group must be directed towards a particular objective. A leader is usually necessary to organize an appropriate response by example, and by spreading images of a goal to be achieved. With few exceptions, a crowd without a leader remains disorganized and incapable of coherent action.

By contrast, a survey of leadership across the centuries shows the concept of most people in the modern world has changed radically from that of earlier times. In past ages, men of renown were largely warriors who left an image of power and action. A true hero acts selflessly with a degree of risk, but risk itself is not heroic. It requires recognition and acclaim to make a hero. Such were the heroes of mythology and classical Greece. While they possessed many passions, including fear, they acted fearlessly in the face of danger, their courage equal to the challenge.

Many present-day high achievers do not fit this old-fashioned heroic pattern, some being simply products of public relations salesmen who blur the distinction between image and reality, knowing the public prefer the image. Many sports and entertainment personalities fit this category. Other contemporary leaders do not lead in the traditional way, but are simply figureheads in the guise of authority. The work done by royalty, governors-general and even some presidents suggests they put much of their energy into lending their name to public projects rather than actively guiding a nation.

Currently, with the worldwide burgeoning of corporations, businesses, and universities, numerous training programmes have developed to teach the attributes of an effective leader. Many instruction manuals correctly assert good leaders are made, not born. They teach the means whereby good leaders can build the confidence of employees by being trustworthy, inspiring, and imparting a vision for all to work towards.

The difference between leading and leadership is apparent in corporations, politics or the armed services. Leading requires a full grasp of the job in hand, and the ability to lead a team. It is concerned with rational thinking: a learned skill, the rules of which can be taught. There is an old saying that to become a good leader, one must first learn to obey. But many skilled business managers and cabinet ministers have been flops when projected into leadership.

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