Eamples of a woman leader free essay sample

What does it mean to be a leader today? Do you think that only certain women are destined for a leadership role? There are three core qualities to leadership: authenticity, self-expression, value creation. â€Å"Authenticity† refers to a link between the inner and the outer person. Truly authentic leaders are open to both their gifts and their underdeveloped qualities. People who understand who they are then to have a more powerful voice—and to make a more profound contribution to an enterprise. (LaBarre, 2004) I believe that Erin Brockovich has these three qualities of leadership and is a women we should look up to as her story was turned into an inspirational motion picture that illustrates that even an ordinary human being can succeed in life if they have enough drive and willpower. With her back against the wall, her only option was to push forward and fight for her familys survival. It was her curiosity that led to the tipping point in her life, but most importantly, her determination, hard work ethic, and perseverance allowed her to prove to people in her life that she was capable of making a difference in today’s society. Erin takes pride in the work she does. She relies on her gut instinct and holds her ground. Her self-awareness is more accurate than not as she knows she has made mistakes in her past and she knows she has not been the best judge of character for her children. But above all she holds herself accountable and lives with a high level of integrity. Doing the right thing at all times is important to Brockovich and her leadership values and vision express that. Brockovich was able to bring out significant change in her employer and all parties involved in the PGE law suit because she displayed drive, purpose, and the eagerness to learn. Her hard work, dedication towards the case, and her willingness to never give up inspired people around her to keep fighting for what was right. Her leadership vision stems from her need to prove herself. Erin doesn’t have a college education but as the film shows; with confidence and persistence, any goal can be achieved. For some reason, many women are afraid to display confidence and assertiveness-perhaps they worry that it can be mistaken for arrogance-unlike their male counterparts who embrace it. And we all know, of course, that confidence is one of the big factors contributing to successful leadership. (Cohen, 2010) Erin had the confidence in herself when she first met with the stuffy women lawyer who was underestimating Erin’s abilities and criticizing her work for not having all the pieces. But in the end, the stuffy lawyer performed poorly because she did not know how to relate with the clients. She, unlike Erin, did not have the social or interacting skills to be attached to their clients. Erin earned their trust and was really affected and concerned with the welfare of the victims involved. The stuffy lawyer had no compassion or concern to the residents but was more focused on the fact that they were fighting against a big corporation. Erin’s personal values and vision allowed her to bring out a significant change in people around her, and as a result people began to follow her. Erin’s interest and passion to dig deeper into the PGE case eventually developed into the largest direct-action lawsuit in history. This case highlights the true leader inside Brockovich as her values and personal vision enhanced the case and transformed her into a booming, intelligent, and trustworthy leader. The leadership style, competencies, influence tactics, and communication strategies that Brockovich developed turned her life around and simultaneously made a difference for all the families affected in this legal case. Brockovich used the sources of power at hand to be successful and she developed more sources of power as the movie and case progressed. Her listening skills allowed her to develop as a leader and gain further investigation regarding the law suit. In the end she proved that sometimes the hardest thing to do and the right thing to do are one in the same. She believed that good things come to those who work hard. I believe that Erin’s leadership style is transformational because people did not follow her because of who she was but because of what she believed in. Erin didn’t have a clue about what it took to be a lawyer and from the movie she definitely didn’t dress appropriately for this legal profession. The one thing that she did have was a big personality with a straight forwardness attitude and profane language, but at the same time I saw that she had a tender and motherly side to her. Erin was able to build trust with people and make deposits into their â€Å"Emotional Bank Account†. An Emotional Bank Account is a metaphor that describes the amount of trust that’s been built up in a relationship. When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective. (Covey,2010) However, she displayed relentless drive and purpose towards the law suit against PGE and throughout the process she increased her capacity to learn, manage tasks, and increase her self-awareness. These competencies transformed her into a leader. While unconventional at times, Erin used the resources at her disposal to acquire the things she needed. For example she combined her appearance of being an â€Å"attractive’ woman and her detachment from the legal field to get access to evidence at the water department and local university. She was so successful at getting evidence that Ed Masry her employer, and attorney began to believe in her capabilities. As Ed began to believe in her, you saw that her coworkers at the law office did as well. As the case grew larger, Brockovichs passion and capacity to learn expanded. She was able to understand the politics of the legal field and developed a substantial amount of legal knowledge in the process. She already gained the trust of her employer but she also began to gain the trust of the people in the community which allowed her to bring out significant change in her followers. For the first time in her life, she felt that people respected her and listened to what she had to say. Power and influence are two critical aspects to the success of Erin Brockovich. From the onset, she had zero expert power and had no legal experience. But she used what little leverage available to her to get what she wanted. Another example would be that Erin’s charm and friendly character allowed her to organize the entire community around the law suit. Her ability to connect with the families in the law suit is crucial to her success. The power came from her ability to build trust with the community, and to give consultation to those affected, and exchange a promise to those affected by PGE that she would make things right. Once Brockovich gained evidence and knowledge about the case, other sources of power began to surface. For example, when Ed learned that there was indeed a case against PGE, she used the information she had as leverage and negotiated with him to get a pay raise with benefits. She knew that she had something that Ed needed and she quickly capitalized on her ability to reward herself for the work she had done. She also used reward power to renegotiate her return to the law firm and on the law suit. When Brockovich organized the community around the law suit she was discovering more and more evidence, she was developing her own expert power. She may have not been an attorney, but she knew more about the case than any other attorney involved and she used her knowledge and expertise to make people listen to her, and eventually they did listen to her. Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, use, understand, and manage your emotions in positive and constructive ways. It’s about recognizing your own emotional state and the emotional states of others. Emotional intelligence is also about engaging with others in ways that draw people to you. (Segall, 2009) Brockovichs emotional intelligence made her very influential and she successfully created a positive emotional tone with the people in the community as she connected with the needs of others families within the other communities. Erin was brave and courageous to push through with all the hard research she was doing with going door to door interviewing families, and persuading the 634 plaintiffs to go along, with the evidence that was only examined by a judge without a jury. With doing that she was determined to not only solve the case but also to help the residents of the community and the families that she connected herself to. She inspired the families affected by PGE to stand up for what is right. She gave consultation to families who had nearly given up. Brockovich was influential because more than anything else she was authentic. She was so passionate about the case because she truly cared about the community, not because she was an attorney looking to make an easy buck. I could tell that Erin was taking the case seriously, deeply concerned with others even if her family was being neglected. This was the first time she really worked hard to achieve something. Brockovichs communication competency developed throughout the movie and law suit. At first, Brockovich was bold, had little charm, and was impatient. However, she learned to listen, the first example was to her boyfriend George after being fired, and then to the people in the community. Brockovich learned that her tone and choice of words were significant towards getting what she wanted, whether it was with her boss Ed, with other attorneys involved with the case, or with the people in the community. As she learned to listen, she began to ask questions and influence other peoples thinking. One of the important lessons that Erin learned was that people just wanted to be heard. For example, she expressed self-control and patience at the end of the movie when she met with the man at the bar about working at PGE. In the beginning she was not patient with the man nor took the time to listen to him as she thought he was peculiar, if she did take the time the outcome of the case would have been much different. Erin proves that leaders need to know the difference between right and wrong, and must contain the art of persuasion, the determination to see things through, courage of conviction, and most of all, heart. The Social Change Model of Leadership Development consists of seven critical values: consciousness of self, congruence, commitment, collaboration, common purpose, controversy with civility, and citizenship (Astin, 1996). Erin has these seven values throughout the entire movie. The scene that offers a lot of these values is when Erin is trying to convince lawyer, Ed Masery, to take on the expansion of the case against PGE. He is reluctant at first but with her persuasion, and her persistence he finally agrees that it’s the right thing to do. Erin is conscious of herself and her values in this scene as she has learned that PGE is poisoning people and her values are not allowing her to ignore it. With that, she is being congruent with her actions by trying to convince Ed that expanding the case is the right thing to do. Collaboration is apparent in this scene because she is asking for the assistance of Ed to represent the other families in the lawsuit. Since she is not a lawyer, she needs Ed’s assistance to succeed and vice versa. Erin and Ed have a common purpose, and that is to expand the PGE lawsuit. Controversy with civility occurs in this scene because Erin is not afraid to call Ed out on not wanting to work a little harder. They have a brief argument but they manage to talk through it and reach the common goal of expansion. And lastly, citizenship is very apparent in this scene as well. Erin pours her heart out about the well-being of the citizens and her willingness to work harder and put more effort in to creating a better society for them. Servant leadership is leadership in which the leader transcends self-interest to serve the needs of others, helps others grow, and provide opportunities for other to gain materially and emotionally (Daft, 2008). Erin is a great example of servant leadership. She will not gain anything if the people of Hinkley have poisonous or safe water, she is doing this all for them to gain better health and money to compensate for all of their medical bills. Yes, she is getting a paycheck out of it but she invested so much time and energy when she could have been doing the bare minimum at a different job. She chose to further investigate the case and convince Ed to expand it because she knew the difference between right and wrong and wanted justice to be served on behalf of the citizens of a town she didn’t even live in. It is clear that Erin Brockovich contains all seven components of this model, which have clearly outlined her leadership development for the greater good. The steps in ethical decision-making are as follows: 1. Stop and think, Clarify goals, 3. Determine facts, 4. Develop Options, 5. Consider consequences, 6. Choose, 7. Monitor and modify (Josephson, 2002). These seven steps are shown in this short scene as well. First Erin thought of all of the possibilities. Then she realized that convincing Ed to expand the lawsuit is her goal. They determined the facts that it would be a hard case, PGE is a huge company, and they would need more evidence. After that, Erin stated the options to either let it go, knowing that PGE is poisoning and harming people or fight for justice. Ed stated that PGE could bury them in paperwork and appeals and put them in debt. Finally after careful thought they decided to expand the lawsuit despite all the possible consequences and Ed proceeds to tell Erin to modify her research to prove PGE are aware that they were poisoning and harming people. There are many ethical traps shown in this movie. The town of Hinkley is faced with the decision of whether or not they want to go to trial with or without a jury. This would mean that the judge’s decision is final and an appeal would be out of the picture. Many of the residents are torn because they realize if they win the case with a jury, PGE would appeal it and it could be dragged out for years. Since most of them need money now, they decided to take their chances and hope for the best. There are six pillars of character that describe an ethical leader: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship (Josephson, 2002). One scene that depicts these six characteristics in Erin Brockovich is in the end when she gives Donna Jensen the news that PGE was had settled for $338 million with $5 million going to Donna’s family. At this point, she has proven her trustworthiness. Erin promised she would fight until they won and this scene pulls it all together and proves that her word is one to be trusted. She has proven that she is a reliable person that people can depend on in a moment of weakness. This scene also shows the respect she has for all the families affected by this. She respected Donna too much to just call or send her a letter stating the outcome. Instead, she personally delivered the message of the win with her boyfriend George as she wanted to show him how he helped these families by taking care of her children. She put her heart, sweat, tears, and time into this case because she truly cared about these families. This scene shows just how much she cared by the huge smile on her face when she tells Donna the good news. We see her sense of responsibility of what she has done what she was going to do, and that was winning the case on behalf of her clients. All of the hard work she was responsible for had now paid off in this scene where she gets to tell Donna that they have won the case. It is not even a question whether or not Erin is a caring person. Citizenship is proved in this scene because she is getting involved with something bigger than herself and this is the scene where it all pays off. Erin Brockovich proves that leaders need to know the difference between right and wrong, and must contain the art of persuasion, the determination to see things through, courage of conviction, and most of all, heart. Against all odds, she stood up for what she believed in and made a difference. She led a town and a group of lawyers in a lawsuit that served justice. Erin may not be your textbook leader but she showed that a leader could come from all different backgrounds. As long as you take the proper steps and confidence in yourself, and what you are trying to accomplish, anyone can be a leader. Overall, Erin had her heart and mind in the right place and succeeded because she knew the difference between right and wrong and fought for it. Erin did her work and gained the respect and following to be able to assume her position as a leader.