Excerpt 2: A BRIEF History ofP a g e | 1

Western Leadership Thought In

the Last 100 Years

Primordial Leadership Excerpt Two

Primordial
Leadership
By Lawrence D. Duckworth

Unleash The Results Animal In You

1

and In Others
Copyright, Lawrence D. Duckworth, 2013

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About this e-book:

This e-book is the first in an 8-part series on leadership to be published on PEXNetwork.com. It is based
on a forthcoming book authored by Lawrence Duckworth, who has himself held leadership roles ranging
from Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer through to Chief Financial Officer. Mr.
Duckworth has also been a well received presenter at PEX Network conferences on leadership, change
management and achieving a learning organization.
The series will look at how understanding the primal (primitive and subconscious) drives that powerfully,
silently and consistently motivate human behavior can help you achieve exceptional results through a
new level of leadership skill. The series will also offer examples of how concepts from Neuroscience and
Sociobiology apply to business, and provide practical tools and processes that you can use directly in
your own leadership approaches.
The series will be published throughout 2013 on PEXNetwork.com and broken down into the following
areas:
Excerpt 1: Introduction
Excerpt 2: A Brief Summary History of Western Leadership Thought In The Last 100 Years
Excerpt 3: Overview: Primal Drives Summary to be released 3 June 2013
Excerpt 4: to be released 17 June 2013
Excerpt 5: You Cant Manage Others Until You Manage Yourself First to be released 1 July
2013
Excerpt 6: Primal Leadership to be released 15 July 2013
Excerpt 7: To Do Tables and Leadership Tools to be released 29 July 2013
Excerpt 8: Managing Change to be released 12 August 2013
Feel free to download and save the excerpts, and to share them on Facebook and Twitter. A webinar
based on the book will be run on PEXNetwork.com this summer. Sign up at
www.pexnetwork.com/webinars.
The full Primordial Leadership book, which will be published in mid-2013, goes well beyond the concepts
presented in these excerpts, with additional chapters and Appendices. Contact Larry Duckworth at
larry.duckworth@hotmail.com to reserve an autographed copy.

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PRIMORDIAL
"adjective \pr-m r-d-l\
1
a: first created or developed : primeval
b: existing in or persisting from the beginning (as of a solar system or universe)
c: earliest formed in the growth of an individual or organ : primitive <primordial cells>

PRIMAL
"adjective \pr-ml\
1: original, primitive
2: first in importance : primary

DRIVE
"To press or force into an activity, course, or direction"
Source: Merriam-Webster.comom

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A Brief History of Western Leadership Thought in the

Last 100 Years
By Lawrence D. Duckworth
Political activist Marcus Garvey once noted that "A people without the knowledge of their past history,
origin and culture is like a tree without its roots." For establishing the context of how Primordial
Leadership is new, additive art, we must first summarily trace the evolution of leadership thinking in the
last 100 years in industrial regions of the country, especially the West. The shift of views and methods
has been material, and is going in the right direction (thanks to growing eco-Safety). Yet leadership
insights need to go one level deeper than past views, and how-to methods must be added.
As in an MBA program, we will observe a seminal
evolution/revolution of "modern" leadership thinking that
started in America in the early 20th Century, and continues to
evolve today; and, with explanatory books like this, will
progress even further in the future.
Historical Summary
Prior to later sensitivities, workers up until the early to mid1900's were very typically subjected to low status, harsh roles,
abusive conditions, poor pay, and even physical danger and
death. The result of subsistence living and unequal powers
between workers and owners were a recipe for economic
(and occasional physical) abuse by today's standards.
Workers' status was utilitarian only, with Selfishness the
controlling Primordial Drive of most owners, and low
Sociability concerns about workers' needs. Famous classics
like Charles Dickens The Tale of Two Cities, Victor Hugos Les
Miserables, and others depicted a squalid society for the nonprivileged masses in Europe in the 1800's. Woody Guthries
Bound For Glory movie and John Steinbecks The Grapes of
Wrath revealed abusive conditions for rural America workers
into and after the Great Depression. For centuries until the
mid-1900s, coal miner deaths were very high owing to noncare by distant owners (the author's father was a late 1940's
coal miner in WV that was injured several times by mine falls).

Les Miserables
"One evening little Gavroche had had
no dinner; he remembered that he
had had no dinner also the day
before; this was becoming tiresome.
He resolved that he would try for
some supper."--Victor Hugo
The Grapes of Wrath
"How can you frighten a man whose
hunger is not only in his own
cramped stomach but in the
wretched bellies of his children? You
can't scare him--he has known a fear
beyond every other."--John Steinbeck
Early Labor Credo
The trade union movement
represents the organized economic
power of the workers... It is in reality
the most potent and the most direct
social insurance the workers can
establish. --Samuel Gompers, early
U.S. labor leader

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Attempts to unionize to gain power for the workers started to gain traction in the late 1800s, often by
women originally. In the later 1800s and early 1900's in the U.S. Samuel Gompers (Cigar Workers Union)
and others eventually founded and confederated labor unions (e.g., the AFL (American Federation of
Labor) and CIO (Congress of International Organizations), who later merged). They began to fight for
more worker power balance against the top-down, one-sided impositions of industrialists. Using
political power to augment workers economic powers, federal administrations supported efforts to give
more power to workers via passing the Clayton Act of 1914 and the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932. The
Roosevelt administration then supported this trend via many labor laws, including establishing the
National Labor Relations Board (in the 1935 Wagner Act) to better protect workers. It was growingly
recognized that a strong middle class, founded on power-based rewards sharing via union power to
offset powerful owners, was important to Americas future strength via a middle class.
In Europe, political support for workers and union organizing somewhat lagged the aggressive pace in
America initially due to tradition being an even stronger force there, but at some point even surpassed
workers' rights and unionization in the U.S. Today, politics and labor unions under generally quasiSocialist political banners have major sway in most European countries.
More modern leadership views began evolving in the early to mid-20th century. As increased ecosystem
(economic strength) based Safety grew there were more societal pressures for owners to be more
compassionate (Sociability). Many laws were also passed to help workers.
In third world countries, workers rights generally continue to be weak, which contributes to the
economic disparity gap in many locations. In some, like present day Venezuela, Bolivia and other
countries, Socialists have politically garnered major worker power reactions to income disparity to
supposedly provide some power balance. The success or failure of Socialism is still in process.
Dictatorships and Monarchies of different types generally favor the powerful, who are needed to
support the dictators and not revolt. North Korea is a good example. Workers suffer greatly.

An American Leadership Evolution Occurred

An awakening was underway in the early Twentieth Century in America, to further explore human
productivity improvements by means other than dictatorial methods. An oft-cited workers study
program were the famous 1920s Hawthorne Studies where Western Electric piece-workers assembling
phones were researched for the purpose of improving productivity. Up until that time workers were
considered automatons who would be managed according to Frederick Taylors utilitarian, lowest cost
Scientific Management.
When lighting was improved, productivity went up. When the lighting was lowered, productivity also
went up. It was finally understood that workers being paid attention to, as though they were important
and appreciated, was the motivating force and not changes in lighting. It became apparent that more
forces were at work than just physical ones. (Many positive Primal Drives were being unleashed,
including Safety *if Im important enough to be researched, my job might be important], Selfishness

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potentials [I might get more rewards], and Hope was also triggered.) Productivity improved. Success
reports went far and wide. Leaders started to think differently.
Then, in the 1930s and 1940s modern leadership mores and insights began to actively take hold in the
universities. Lectures and books began to picture workers as being of more than one dimension.

Abraham Maslow And His Famous Hierarchy of

Needs"
The mid-20th Century work of Dr. Abraham Maslow was a
major breakthrough in beginning to better understand
human behavior in the workplace. This graphic and the
below excerpts from Google Images and Psychology - The
Search for Understanding (Simons, Erwin, Drinnien) provide
important insights into his seminal work.
Humanists (Maslow and others) focus upon potentials. They
believe that humans strive for an upper level of capabilities.
Humans seek the frontiers of creativity, the highest reaches
of consciousness and wisdom. This has been labeled 'fully
functioning person', 'healthy personality', or as Maslow calls
this level, 'self-actualizing person.'
Maslow has set up a hierarchic theory of needs. All of his basic
needs are instinctive, equivalent of instincts in animals.
Maslow's basic needs are as follows:

Maslow saw self-actualization as the

apex of human needs once all the others
have been taken care of

Physiological Needs
Safety Needs
Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness
Needs for Esteem
Needs for Self-Actualization.

As can be seen, Maslow importantly described the impacts, or the results, of the Primal Drives, including
a flow of Needs, and thus got close to the lower, causative Primal Drives by identifying their symptoms
well; and even named one, Safety. Safety, Selfishness, Transcendence, Sociability and more are reflected
in the two-dimensional needs Hierarchy. The truth of this is revealed when we ask Why? are these
Hierarchy drives like they are? What caused them? Answer: The Primal Drives, one level lower than
Maslow took us.

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Frederick Herzbergs Two Factors Theory

Dr. Frederick Herzberg, a psychologist and professor, added even more understanding of human
motivations and his findings closely align with the lower level Primal Drives; including how combinations
can be marbled in their effect.
As explained by Joseph Gawel of The Catholic University of America:
In summary, satisfiers describe a person's relationship with what she or he does, many related to the
tasks being performed. Dissatisfiers, (Hygiene Factors) on the other hand, have to do with a person's
relationship to the context or environment in which she or he performs the job. The satisfiers relate to
what a person does while the dissatisfiers relate to the situation in which the person does what he or she
does.
The two groupings are:
Satisfier Factors

Hygiene Factors
Pay and Benefits

Achievement
Recognition
Work Itself
Responsibility
Promotion
Growth

Company
Policy
Administration

and

Relationships with co-workers

Supervision
Status
Job Security
Working Conditions
Personal life"

In terms of the Primal Drives, Herzberg missed the deeper Why? causal factors, but did reflect the
marbling nature of them in varying, complex situations. Value was added.

Douglas McGregors Theory X and Theory Y.

Dr. Douglas McGregor was another master of leadership study and publication, with The Human Side of
Enterprise his most recognized work. As a president of Antioch College, in addition to being a
management professor, he brought unique in-the-seat experience to his observations. The experts at
Management Guru provide a good overview:

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His book The Human Side of Enterprise (1960) is a seminal work in management as it introduces a
humanistic approach to the business perspective. McGregor's view was a critic on what we perceived as
erroneous assumptions of the human relations approach that was popular after the Hawthorne
experiments.
It was also clear to McGregor that prevalent management practices of bossing workers through
control and direction were also wrong and counterproductive.
"This McGregor termed Theory X and the perspective assumed:
The average human being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can...
Because of this human characteristic of dislike of work, most people must be coerced, controlled,
directed, and threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the
achievement of organizational objectives...
The average human being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little
ambition, and wants security above all.
Reminiscent of Follett, McGregor argued for a shift of perspective towards one that emphasized the
integration of individual and organizational goals. This view of humans he termed Theory Y:
The expenditure of ...effort in work is as natural as play or rest. The human being does not inherently
dislike work...
External control and the threat of punishment are not the means for bringing about effort... . Man will
exercise self-direction and self-control in the service of objectives to which he is committed.
Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their achievement. The most
significant of such rewards, e.g., the satisfaction of ego and self-actualization... .
The average human being learns, under proper conditions, not only to accept but to seek
responsibility. ...
The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and creativity in the solution
of organizational problems is widely ...distributed... .
The intellectual potentialities of the average human being are only partially utilized.
The McGregor insights were very well received, but still stopped short of the Whys? behind them.
These and other professors' observations and writings provided the mid-20th Century breakthroughs
that have spawned perhaps scores of different books on management and leadership since; perhaps
more. They allowed us to evolve from prior autocratic methods, where Theory X negative practices were
predominant worldwide.

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Drucker Was Unequaled

Dr. Drucker of Harvard has been called " the most influential management thinker of the 20th Century."
His advice was heeded by more leaders than any other person. His dozen or more books were, and are,
devoured by leaders. Such important bromides as the following resulted:

The effective executive achieves results.

Be effective first, then be efficient.
Do the right things first, then do things right.
The purpose of a business is to create a customer.
A manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge.
A manager does things right. A leader does the right things.
He stressed five key things:
Managing time
Choosing what to contribute to the organization
Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect
Setting the right priorities
Knitting all of them together with effective decision-making.

In his Five Most Important Questions he stressed:

What is our mission?

Who is our customer?
What does the customer value?
What are our (target) results? and
What is our plan?

Notice that RESULTS leadership is the purpose. He says to focus on

the key, difference causing areas, picking only the key ones is
important, communicating the Whys? (including why the rejected
alternatives are not as strong), gaining emotional support and
executing to exceed plans.
Getting the right people into the right jobs, and organizing to
strengths are emphasized. Ability versus schmoozing must be
identified, nurtured, promoted and supported. Meritocracy is
enhanced culturally.
"Creating a customer" is a key Drucker imperative, using Marketing
and Innovation. The importance of the "knowledge worker" is a key,
early Drucker focus. This includes developing a knowledge
organization.
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No "Creeping Meatballs" Allowed!

Dr. Ed Maaze at VA Tech often gave
examples of "face men" (vs. true
leader athletes) being promoted due
to socializing skills vs. true abilities.
He derisively called them "creeping
meatballs." The author has observed
this dynamic, and some nepotism, in
multiple companies. In one, a key,
high hubris P&L leader, in way over
his head, literally put a Fortune 100
company so deep in the losses hole
that, accompanied with other
problems, the company never fully
recovered. He would preen and
schmooze, but was not only clueless,
but wrong-headed. Disaster.

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Self-management is an important leadership attribute as well according to Drucker. Staying true to

one's own self while also listening to conflicting, and even dissenting, opinions before deciding is an
important success attribute.

Primal Leadership
This 2004 evolutionary book by Universities Professors Goleman, Boyatzis and McKee gets the closest
yet to the key Whys? behind how to successfully get the most out of yourself, and out of others,
presents many compelling scientific studies and surveys linking the brain's functions to management,
and has many good recommendations; but still leaves important room for these deeper, more powerful
Why? elements to be revealed.
The pronouncements are materially correct and very helpful. An important exception is in the Preface's
page 1 when they say that the "fundamental task of leaders is to prime good feelings in those they
lead." They are confusing "means" and "ends." Dr. Drucker, and the author, say that RESULTS are the
fundamental task of leaders. Positive, motivated "resonant" employees are certainly key means to those
ends, and the preferred means if possible, but are just a means. However, non-"good feelings"
leadership acts happen scores of times every dayto achieve leadership results in the real world versus
academia. To be fair, the authors later do show that negatives sometimes have to control
They use the term Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Emotional Quotient (EQ) throughout. Their views are
that leaders need to be emotionally sensitive, and provide "meaning" and "resonance" to the
organization; and that leaders are key to transcendence as "emotional guides." (Braksick in Unleash
Behavior-Unleash Profits talks about the importance of "discretionary (voluntary) performance," which
is similar to "resonance.") The author fully agrees. The importance of "Humor" is highlighted, which will
be seen as a key Safety-releasing Primal Drive.
Much emphasis is made about "how" leaders lead. Some
mention of the importance of vision is noted, but not
sufficiently in the author's view. )Positive feelings do not
last long if the company is being beaten in the market due
to a poor vision and resulting plan, and workers' jobs are
at risk.)
In an exciting and pioneering way, much time is devoted
to the brain, its lymbic system, the amygdala (shown here,
which has fully 20% of the brain's synapses, controls
emotions, memory, reactions and much more), and other
brain processes; including the interactions with the prefrontal lobe (emotions). They seem to stress the emotional
areas over the neo cortex, "thinking brain." (The author
generally reverses that view.)

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The Amygdala area of the brain

controls emotions, memory,
reactions and more

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An "open loop" brain is discussed, and how we make connections with others' brains to form
"contagions" and to "latch." All is correct, well documented with many research studies, and useful to
know as we move forward as leaders. Research showing the positive impacts of "upbeat," mutual
comfort cultures or "climates" are documented.
Perhaps too much emphasis is made of "good moods," upbeat styles and more, however, in these times
of Gen Y and Millenials, such styles are becoming increasingly expected. They show how "Discord" (fear)
caused a "flooding of heartbeats" (increases) as the negative reaction. They note that "dissonance"
(negatives) can be used when needed, but will have short run impacts only. They did not explain why,
however.
Four domains of EI and sub-elements are reviewed, summarized as follows:

Self-awareness
Self-management
Social awareness
Relationship management

Leadership styles are structured in six groups that are

each reviewed:

Visionary
Coaching
Affiliative
Democratic
Pace-setting
Commanding

Generally Terminate The Lowest 10%

This mantra of Jack Welch received much
resistance, but he persevered because he
knew it would harness the Selfishness
and Safety needs of a person to not be in
that 10%, thereby boosting performance
individually and collectively. Also, the bar
would naturally be constantly raised as a
result for all.
BUT, MAKE SURE OBJECTIVE CRITERIA
AND DUE PROCESS ARE USED!

A major, correct emphasis is on choosing A-players. Competency profiles are needed, objectively based
on the best performers. Identify those with high potentials and move them up the ladder at the right
pace. This fosters meritocracy also.
Other key areas were reviewed.
While Primal Leadership has been criticized for few how ideas to actually use, it does move the
leadership evolution forward towards the brain-centered Primordial Leadership bedrock, and is
recommended reading.

Many Other Leadership Insights ExistBut

Blanchard, Bennis, Collins, Covey(s), Champy, Gladwell, and many others provide excellent indirect
observational insights to leadership, organizational development, change management, re-engineering
and other aspects of effective leadership. All of their ideas are soundand all over the board. The
proscriptions are many, and are generally hard for consistent implementation in the myriad of situations
that will be encountered daily by leaders. They provide many good What? and some How? ideas,
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but fall short of the key underlying , more powerful Why? factors explained by the Primal Drives,
which are underlying powerful constructs that can be applied consistently in varying situations.
Max Dupree's The Art of Leadership, thought irreverent, has many practical insights and ideas from a
leadership practitioner.

Moving The Ball Forward

Primordial Leadership moves the ball forward from these great minds, and adds even more powerful
tools and insights. The coming Overviews provide important contexts before four chapters on
implementation.
"One of its central tenets is that genes (and their transmission through successful reproduction) are
the central motivators in animals struggle for survival, and that animals will behave in ways that
maximize their chances of transmitting copies of their genes to succeeding generations. Since
behaviour patterns are to some extent inherited, the evolutionary process of natural selection can be
said to foster those behavioural (as well as physical) traits that increase an individuals chances of
reproducing."--brittanica.com
Social relationships are merely by-products of behavior originally (genetically) selected to avoid
our being eaten by predators (or today, being beaten by competitors, technological change, the
economy or laws changesauthors add)Dr. Gazzaniga, Director of the SAGE Center For The Study
Of The Mind at UC-Santa Barbara

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