History of Leadership - The Corporate King

Part of an effort to revise and expand NationBuilder.com’s “Vision” section, the History of Leadership page was just begging for some illustrations to highlight the various iterations of leadership through time.

This illustration of the "corporate king”, a man with a suit and tie (and transparent crown), drinking coffee and sitting behind a fancy desk, is a reference to the explosion of leadership theory following the industrial revolution. Predominantly centering on the concept of reward and coercive power, these theories proposed that wielding these tools of leadership effectively was the best way for aspiring employees to climb the ladder of management.