History and evolutionary origin of leadership

In this chapter we present a lesson plan in a course entitled “Service Leadership” at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In that lecture, three basic aspects of the Service Leadership Model are presented. First, the origin of service leadership from an evolutionary anthropology perspective is outlined. Second, three realms of service leadership with reference to self, others, and systems are presented. Third, two leadership models (i.e., top-down and bottom-up models) are introduced and their strengths and weaknesses are examined. Students are also invited to reflect on their assumptions of men with reference to leadership. Several class activities including role-play, self-reflection exercise and questionnaire survey are designed to help students achieve the learning outcomes. The paper ends by highlighting topics which can help students to have critical thinking and reflections.