World's Best Leaders Aren't Human

Compared to countless other animal leaders, human heads of state are not so powerful, finds a new survey of leadership throughout the animal kingdom. In many cases, animal leaders have the full support of their charges and rise to the top based on experience. The goal of the study, published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, was to help determine what makes an effective, true leader. “While previous work has typically started with the premise that leadership is somehow intrinsically different or more complex in humans than in other mammals, we started without a perceived notion about whether this should be the case,” Jennifer Smith of Mills College said in a press release. She added, “By approaching this problem with an open mind and by developing comparable measures to compare vastly different societies, we revealed more similarities than previously appreciated between leadership in humans and non-humans.”


http://news.discovery.com/animals/the-worlds-best-leaders-arent-human-151106.htm