Leadership is universal yet strikingly diverse across societies, reflecting complex interplays of ecological pressures and cultural evolution. This talk synthesizes multidisciplinary insights into how ecological factors—ranging from climate and population density to resource availability and pathogen prevalence—shape societal leadership prototypes (CLPs). Drawing from evolutionary psychology and cross-cultural studies, we explore how leadership ideals emerge, persist, and adapt in response to both ancestral and contemporary ecological challenges. In this talk I propose an integrative framework that bridges cultural and evolutionary paradigms, emphasizing two pivotal mechanisms: evoked culture—adaptive responses to immediate ecological threats—and transmitted culture, which perpetuates leadership ideals across generations even when mismatched to current conditions. For instance, societies exposed to resource scarcity or high pathogen prevalence tend to prioritize authoritarian and self-protective leadership, whereas stable, resource-abundant ecologies favor participative and team-oriented leadership models. These findings are supported by cross-societal data from large-scale studies such as GLOBE, alongside anthropological and behavioral evidence from small-scale societies. Furthermore, I will address the implications of mismatched leadership prototypes in a rapidly changing global landscape, particularly as ecological pressures intensify, and cultural transmission accelerates. This integration highlights critical opportunities for leadership research and practice, offering a nuanced understanding of how ecological predictors can inform leadership development in diverse organizational and societal contexts. Join me to uncover how the fusion of evolutionary and cultural perspectives can deepen our understanding of leadership variation across the globe, providing actionable insights for fostering leadership that is both ecologically informed and culturally resonant in the 21st century.

wlucy2@ceibs.edu