The first rule of evolution: We are destined to become more complex.

The Purpose: Why Read This Book

Congratulations on taking the first steps toward improving your understanding and practice of leadership. The collective team of business leaders who contributed to this book possesses over a hundred years of experience. In my career, I've held the titles of board president, CEO, COO, and managing director in some of America’s leading companies and nonprofit organizations. In addition, I’ve had the opportunity to work at AT&T Bell Labs, on Wall Street, and in Management Consulting—working at entry-level and mid-level management positions. I’ve worked with hundreds of leaders, including many of Silicon Valley’s Unicorns and Fortune 500 corporations—spanning 12 different industries across multiple countries. My strategic leadership experience involves large-scale general management and organizational transformation.

           As part of my research, I interviewed over 32 senior leaders in business, education, politics, and the military, and quickly realized that the vast majority of leaders don’t leverage a formal leadership model. Over 80 percent said they couldn’t point to a model that helped guide their decision-making or leadership development. This lack of a leadership mental model forced each leader to piece together their understanding from various lessons learned, general rules of thumb, and ad hoc assessments. The data brought about this question: Is there a better way to understand and improve the practice of leadership? Each progressive interview indicated how these exemplary senior leaders developed a unique context-specific perspective.

           The Last Book of Leadership is the book I wish I had owned at the beginning of my career. If I did, it would have been a game-changer—facilitating enhanced cultural awareness, faster promotions, greater financial results, and optimized organizational performance. While the Google-sphere offers many diverse leadership theories, perspectives, and hypotheses, I feel this book will greatly benefit readers with a practical, holistic, and universal model of leadership. The three primary goals of this book are to:

1.     Create a unified leadership model based on first principles

2.     Differentiate meaningful leadership types

3.     Explain the evolution of leadership

The approach to these challenges is to decouple leadership’s many complexities and paradoxes into fundamental truths—analyzing the interrelationships and structures into a foundational model. By testing the model in a diversity of leadership scenarios, I was able to verify the model’s validity regardless of the domain or context. Understanding the individual Unified Leadership Model puzzle pieces and how they fit together helps leaders gain insights, avoid pitfalls and missteps, and ultimately evolve their leadership capabilities.

Goal 1: Create a Unified Leadership Model

To date, our understanding of leadership has been unidimensional—without recognition of the kaleidoscopic nature of this social science. The challenge with understanding leadership and its evolution is that it is a multivariate social science that encompasses a diversity of contextual, psychological, and interpersonal interactions. Over time, attempts were made to dissect pieces of the “leadership elephant” and then call it the whole elephant. Many books and theories on leadership espouse that leadership is about X or Y or Z, but each only provides partial truths. Other attempts involve interviewing celebrity leaders to offer a pop-culture view into what makes them successful. Unfortunately, it’s a lot like asking a dolphin how they are such proficient swimmers or eagles how they can spot prey from afar. It’s nearly impossible for accomplished genius to convey how they achieve high performance.

           In the same vein, the collection of evolving leadership theories has frequently contributed conflicting explanations of what makes a leader successful. Each theory captures general truths but remains fragmented, lacking in metrics, and does not universally transfer across domains. As depicted in Figure 1, the Unified Leadership Model captures the 24 elements across pillars, processes, and accelerators that apply regardless of discipline, context, or domain.

Figure 1: Unified Leadership Model Structure—Leadership Pillars, Processes, and Accelerators

This scaffolding is important as it will be used to assemble the full ULM Framework that is used throughout this book.

Goal 2: Differentiate Meaningful Leadership Types

It’s important to recognize that there are many diverse leadership types, each playing an important societal role. One of the glaring challenges with leadership today is that two people can watch the same leader execute and have wildly different opinions on the leader’s character, competency, and presence. This divergence may seem puzzling, but because people embrace different ideologies, prefer different leadership types, and lack objective metrics, an intelligent debate is often a bridge too far. Today’s methods don’t assess leaders objectively—leadership selection is still based on popularity, charisma, birthright, or even an ideological affiliation. Having an analytical model that discerns which leaders and leadership types have the mental, physical, and moral capacity to lead in a particular situation is a missing piece in the leadership puzzle.

Goal 3: Explain the Evolution of Leadership

The lens of history is an important instructor as much of our leadership wisdom comes from antiquity. While individual leaders evolve through microevolution (personal capabilities and growth), humanity’s leadership capacity evolves through macroevolution (advancing standards and techniques). For example, early Primal Leaders typically led small groups of 10 to 15 people and mostly relied on instincts and physicality to coordinate their efforts. Later came the Tribal and Warlord Leaders that evolved in capabilities and techniques. By contrast, today’s highly evolved Unified and Universal Leaders build complex institutions, champion powerful ideologies, and leverage multimedia technologies to unify billions of people.

Over the millennia, leadership has significantly evolved. The pace of change has accelerated as globalization, technical disruption, climate change, sustainability, public health, and regulating dangerous technologies are all of greater consequence. Many of these issues impact the world at such a scale that solutions can only come from shared global leadership. Addressing these challenges through the rapid evolution of our ideologies, institutions, and leadership capabilities provides the greatest hope for human prosperity.

Reader’s Journey

Francis Bacon wrote, “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”[1] This book should be chewed and digested, as it provides a new comprehensive framework that ties many of the leadership puzzle pieces together into an integrated whole. For readability, the book is divided into three parts.

Part I: Unified Leadership Model Framework

The book’s first part describes the Unified Leadership Model (ULM) Framework that is central to assessing and developing leaders.

Unified Leadership Model                  Chapters 1-3

Leadership Types and Identity          Chapter 4

Unified Leadership Scorecard           Chapter 5

The rest of the book applies this framework to analyze world-class leaders who exemplify key aspects of the model.

Part II: Historical Leader Stories

The book’s second part provides leadership examples at critical historical moments that illustrate specific elements of the ULM Framework—organized by the leader’s primary leadership type. Each chapter details real-life leadership challenges that highlight the behaviors and attributes that led to success or failure. Multiple examples of each leadership type are presented in the following chapters:

·        Dictators                    Chapters 6-7

·        Commanders            Chapters 8-9

·        Decision-Makers      Chapters 10-12

·        Change Agents         Chapters 13-15

·        Ideologues                Chapters 16-17

·        Builders                     Chapters 18-19

·        Team Captains          Chapters 20-22

·        Visionaries                Chapters 23-24

·        Spiritual Leaders      Chapters 25-26

·        Martyrs                      Chapters 27-28

Part III: Humanity’s Evolutionary Journey

The last part, comprised of the book’s final chapter, focuses on leadership’s evolution since the dawn of humanity—approximately 300,000 years ago. As evolution is one of the most powerful forces in our world, how our leadership, institutions, ideology, and technology evolve will determine whether humanity survives over the next 100 years and beyond. 

Leadership Stories

For continuity reasons, starting at the beginning of the book yields the best results for emerging leaders, but more seasoned leaders may skip around if particular leadership stories are of interest. Each chapter begins with a leadership story that illustrates the model in action—detailing a “No turn back moment” in the leader’s life that demonstrates how context, vision, wisdom, and power led to the pinnacle of greatness or abject failure. For Part II, I selected 24 prominent leaders across business, politics, religion, sports, and the military to illustrate aspects of the Unified Leadership Model.

As depicted in Figure 2, each chapter highlights a specific leader, their dominant leadership type, and highlights a specific ULM attribute.

Figure 2: Evolutionary Leadership Stories: Leader, Leadership Type, and ULM Attribute

Some leaders sought to fundamentally disrupt society, while others vehemently fought to preserve the status quo. The majority of leaders had exceptional outcomes, but several illustrate leadership deficiencies and identity misalignments that led to disaster. Each leader passionately pursued their vision with courage, conviction, and belief in their values and ideals, but history is the final judge of their outcomes.

Why Lead?

This book is dedicated to future generations of leaders who will pick up the torch and carry it forward. Opening new possibilities and achieving progress depends on leadership—no organization progresses without it. When we as leaders become more proficient, our organizations and people transform, and society benefits. People who become exceptional leaders must consciously choose to lead, accumulate relevant skills and experience, and possess an identity that is in harmony with their role. Even if all those elements are present, your effectiveness as a leader will ebb and flow throughout your career based on changing contexts, resource availability, shifting power structures, and desired outcomes—luck will also play a significant role.

As leaders of consequence, we are tested daily, and having an accurate mental model of leadership is transformative. Whether you’re starting out as a fledgling manager or leading a Global 500 company, Unified Leadership is the one skill that sets the individual apart from the masses. Your choice to lead launches you on a wild journey into a complex and sometimes inhospitable jungle—it takes situational awareness, fearlessness, courage, and a desire for adventure to succeed. Having a clear and detailed mental model of leadership will serve you for a lifetime.

Part I: The Model

The ULM Framework provides a holistic lens from which to view the kaleidoscopic evolution of leadership. Each story contained in this section present realistic, but anonymized, examples of leadership challenges and outcomes. The first story in this section is futuristic, while the subsequent stories have the names and places changed to protect people’s privacy and identity.

 Chapter 1: The Unified Leadership Model

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

—Publilius Syrus[2]

A Leadership Success Story

In 2051, life on Earth had dramatically improved—humanity had made tremendous technological and social progress. Earth’s leadership ingeniously figured out how to collectively harness the power of unified effort—stopping global warming, colonizing Mars, producing unlimited clean energy, and solving world hunger. Additionally, an ideological evolution took place, overcoming many of the social ills and warlike tendencies of the past. A new generation of Universal Leaders emerged who overcame humanity’s innate tribalistic, short-term, and wishful thinking tendencies. These Universal Leaders represented the next evolution of leadership that evolved just in time for humankind.

This was not the first time humanity had been on the brink of disaster. For decades, politicians talked about unity and a brighter future, but wars continued to rage, and real change failed to materialize. During the 2020s and early 2030s, environmental and social issues worsened. The Earth’s temperature accelerated past the 2.5-degree centigrade tipping point, far exceeding the limits proposed in the Paris Agreement. Peaking at 75 gigatons of carbon emissions, the corresponding temperature increase triggered prolonged periods of severe drought, unprecedented storms, wildfires, famine, and mass migrations that led to regional wars.

Real change wasn’t possible without urgency, but with millions dying every week, no one was willing to accept political window-dressing or leaders who failed to act. Old-school leadership that relied on populism and short-term thinking all had to go. Fortunately, a new generation of strong leaders emerged to collectively reverse the decline—instituting massive cooperative action. The successful deployment of global geoengineering coupled with radical new clean energy and sustainability breakthroughs saved Earth’s environment. Once again human ingenuity prevailed.

Back in 2023, as billions of tons of CO2 and other harmful gasses continued to poison the atmosphere, world leaders negotiated, only considering their short-term economic and political bottom line. Closing the gap between knowing and doing required forceful economic, political, and social change. Sweeping government policy and regulatory reform along with public and private investment sparked fundamental changes across energy production, manufacturing, agriculture, and transportation. Unfortunately, during the early-2020s, global leaders were still unwilling to take potentially unpopular action. Little did they know that their entrenched political positioning and lack of action would ultimately destabilize the geopolitical order.

As the crisis worsened, the number, duration, and intensity of planetary disasters impacted the rich and the poor alike—business-as-usual was no longer an option. The decisive factor in humanity’s change equation was when money, political connection, and privilege were no longer a shield against the rapidly declining environment. Self-centered thinking and schadenfreude[3] no longer mattered becausenow the climate was impacting everyone. Although the poor still bore the brunt of the destruction, the rich could also no longer escape. Likewise, the days of making global issues about country boundaries and economic class were over. China, Russia, India, Europe, and the U.S. all heard the cries of their populations and sensed the outrage regarding their inaction. It was no longer about future generations—the current population’s survival was at stake. 

Luckily, a new group of Universal Leaders emerged, displaying an intimate awareness of their context, a long-term vision to attack global problems, and insightful wisdom. Working together, the combined multinational leadership recognized that only through consensus and common goals could a new worldview emerge. Fortunately, a republic of innovative ideas materialized along with sufficient talent and investment. Real signs of progress didn’t manifest until 2033, after over a decade of collective action. A new class of powerful Zoomers and Gen Alpha Leaders had ascended who instituted post-ideological thinking and massive global change. These new leaders were no longer constrained by past limitations, alliances, and prejudice, but instead consciously focused on humanity’s collective future—a brighter future for all.

Leadership Evolution

Leaders throughout history evolved their practices and behaviors out of necessity. As we will see in future chapters, Lincoln fought for unity, Churchill fought to overcome tyranny, and many great leaders fought for social justice and independence. At each inflection point, it was their context, vision, wisdom, and power that determined their outcomes.

The next generation of leaders, Universal Leaders, need to become a force for unification and positive disruption globally. These leaders need to embrace our collective challenges holistically, value the free exchange of ideas and innovation, and seek to join people in a unified worldview. Their ability to effectively use ideology, media, and policy to humanity’s advantage will bridge our society’s psychological fragmentation and warlike tendencies—designing the institutions that create a Goldilocks environment for humanity’s prosperous evolution.

Overview of the Unified Leader Model

When the seas are turbulent, and change is cast upon us, leaders find the courage to show us the way. Like the fabled character Sisyphus, humanity is destined to push a rock uphill for eternity, as there will always be new leadership challenges that arise. When problems or opportunities present themselves, during times of crisis, or when we need corrective action, we turn to leaders to steer us toward a brighter future. In every area of our society—corporations, nonprofits, governments, education, and the military—people who take ownership, pursue worthy goals, create strong group identities, and progress society forward are the leaders we choose to follow. So, for the exceptional adventurers who dare to lead, why do some fail while others succeed? 

           I’ve asked this question repeatedly over the past 10 years and have done extensive research and analysis while working with hundreds of leaders. The non-superficial answer lies in their context, vision, wisdom, power, and ability to generate outcomes. A leader’s probability for success or failure hinges on each of these variables and the interrelationships between them. The Unified Leadership Model (ULM) framework provides a universal gauge that attempts to better classify leaders and measure their distinctive leadership capabilities.

           The ULM Framework represents a paradigm shift—an actionable model that is accurate regardless of the environment and views leadership holistically rather than focusing on one or two individual attributes. Like any social science that tries to explain human behavior, leadership has many layers of complexity. Albert Einstein once said, “Everything should be as simple as it can be, but not simpler.”3 The ability to understand this complexity begins with foundational areas. The resulting model integrates these concepts into a single framework that is applicable regardless of domain or specialty. Once complete, this framework facilitates a holistic understanding of leadership. The ULM Framework has five foundational areas, as depicted in Figure 3. 

Figure 3: Leadership Foundational Areas

Leadership Foundation Descriptions

Leadership success or failure is tightly interwoven with the interplay of these five foundational areas. A brief description of each area is as follows: 

1.     Context: Being aware of one’s ecosystem enables a leader to recognize and understand both problems and opportunities in their environment. Having awareness of one’s “self” and “situation” serves to ground a leader in reality. Self-awareness requires an understanding of one’s feelings, thoughts, and values—leading to conscious clarity of both intention and identity. Situational awareness involves the analysis of environmental factors that impact the leader’s vision and ability to execute.

2.     Vision: All great leadership journeys begin with a unifying vision of a brighter future. A crystal-clear vision lays out what the leader and organization would like to achieve: facilitating organizational alignment and guiding decision-making. The most powerful visions are typically the result of the leader’s prolonged suffering or irresistible passion for something. A leader with a bold, audacious, and inspiring vision can generate an avalanche of support for achieving results.

3.     Wisdom: Leadership wisdom ensures honorable intentions and intelligent action. It is derived from three elements: character, competency, and presence. Character defines the leader’s personality traits, behaviors, and morality that influence decisions and actions. Competency is the ability to apply knowledge and skills to proficiently perform in a given situation. Presence enables the leader to increase team performance, acting as a coach and role model who embodies confidence, poise, and courage. When a leader possesses all three elements of wisdom, they inspire others and attract success.

4.     Power: A leader’s power consists of their ability and willingness to direct and influence others or the course of events. It involves the use of three types of power: personal, ethical, and positional. Personal power is derived from knowledge and expertise, the ability to persuade, and the ability to build relationships. Ethical power is the ability to gain compliance around a goal or specific desired behavior based on shared values—usually involving a moral appeal. Positional power gives leaders legitimacy and the ability to reward or punish people. To accelerate progress, a leader needs to balance and regulate the appropriate use of power for each situation.

5.     Outcome: A leader is accountable for generating favorable outcomes. But outcomes require the coordinated efforts of others and control of the environment. Leaders cannot let the environment control them as they are responsible for overcoming adversity and achieving short-term progress and long-term results. If a leader acts with intention, takes control of the environment, and gains momentum, the probability of changing the environment increases.

These five foundational areas of leadership—context, vision, wisdom, power, and outcome—is the superstructure that enables leadership assessment, selection, development, and strategic analysis. Together, these elements form the beating heart of the Unified Leadership Model. By gaining an understanding of the foundational areas of leadership, we can unlock leadership’s mysteries and begin to view the forest, trees, and unifying landscape of leadership’s true nature.

A Context-First Perspective

You may be asking why context is the model’s first element and why it is so important. Context, and awareness of context, affects how a leader conducts themselves and their vision, and accounts for over half the probability of their success. Environmental conditions, such as control, resource abundance, cooperation, enlightened thinking, safety, and open-mindedness, exist in extremely favorable contexts. Under superior circumstances, great things are possible, creativity abounds, and achievement is likely. On the other hand, under oppressive or dangerous circumstances where chaos, scarcity, ignorance, and hostility taint the environment, leaders need to proceed with an abundance of skill, caution, and sometimes coercive force.

           Accurate contextual awareness is a leader’s best friend—it creates a mental map of reality and provides the opportunity to adjust strategy, tactics, and behaviors to better align with or change circumstances. Having the option to switch contexts or alter the existing context is advantageous. Throughout each of the leadership stories that follow, this book examines the role that context plays in leadership outcomes. As we will see in many of the leadership stories that follow, even if the existing context is overwhelmingly unfavorable, the passage of time may create an opening for change.

Unpacking Leadership Foundational Areas

To further dissect the five foundational areas, they are expanded into eight leadership pillars, as illustrated in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Unified Leadership Model: Eight Pillars of Leadership

These eight pillars of leadership establish the groundwork for the ULM Framework and are universally important across all organizational situations. Depending on the specific role, different minimum levels of expertise in each of the leadership pillars are required. This expanded view represents a leader’s innate capacity to execute. So far, we have covered 8 of the 24 attributes of the Unified Leadership Model.

           Chapter 2 introduces eight leadership processes that integrate these leadership pillars. Then, Chapter 3 examines leadership accelerators—giving a behind-the-scenes perspective on what truly drives leadership performance in highly competitive environments. So hang in there as you read the next two chapters—understanding the 24 ULM components is the key to unlocking the mysteries of history’s greatest leaders.

[1] Francis Bacon, The Essays (London: 1597).

[2] Publisius Syrus, Maxim 358, Sententiae, trans. R. A. H. Bickford-Smith (London: C. J. Clay and Sons, 1895).

[3] Schadenfreude is a German word that comes from the noun Schaden, meaning “harm,” and Freude, meaning “joy.” Thus, the word means finding joy from harm or misfortune suffered by others. This peculiar human phenomenon stems from wanting to feel better about ourselves and the belief that karmic forces are at play.

3 Roger Sessions, “How a ‘Difficult’ Composer Gets That Way,” New York Times, January 8, 1950.