September 4th Readings

                It is an interesting idea to liken leadership styles to one of the four classic elements and a useful tool for swiftly identifying such styles and adjusting one’s own accordingly. However, I do wish there had been more details regarding people of mixed elemental styles, those being fire/earth, fire/air, fire/water, earth/air, earth/water, and air/water. I raise this point because I scored evenly in the air and fire categories in the self-assessment. Perhaps it is a subject that could be examined further in class.

                Desmond Tutu, in his interview, expounds on the classic, but still relevant notion that the best leader is a servant. What is meant by this is that a leader must seek the betterment of their followers and suffer doing so. What is meant by suffering is that leadership must not be viewed as a tool for personal gain, but rather as a burden that must be born stoically. Indeed, the leaders Tutu named, including Aung San Suu Kyi, Mahatma Ghandi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. all suffered for the leadership roles they took, but ultimately affected great social change, bettering the lives of many.

                Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, in her video points out a very worrying trend: that women occupy only a small portion of leadership positions in government, business, and non-profit organizations and that the number is growing smaller. Though many factors are at play in this trend, Sandberg postulates that at least part of the reason may be some of the personal choices or strategies that women employ in the workplace as compared to men. Where men are more likely to be assertive and think highly of themselves, many women tend towards the opposite. Sandberg encourages women in the workplace to be more assertive, to sit at the table and to keep their hands raised, to use two of her personal anecdotes. While this does not speak to issues of discrimination or other systemic problems, more women becoming assertive and making long-term plans that foster personal success can serve to begin reversing the trend.