Leadership Power of Women - Book Report/Review Example

Leadership Power of Women Introduction With the rapid development of technology and the evolution of human consciousness, women have proven again and again their important role to society. In particular, women are poised to take even more leadership roles and responsibilities as we progress in the 21st Century. Women are no longer subservient to men in their daily affairs. They are learning to be more assertive. One of the books that discuss this issue is Enlightened Power, and this paper will explore much of what this book has contributed. It is my hope that the reader will learn so much from the book the way I did. Enlightened Power This book is a collection of essays by different feminist authors, gathered in order by Keith Hollihan and Ellen Wingard, the editors. It is divided into three sections. All essays falling under the three sections have the common theme of empowering women. Part One is titled “Reimagining Power.” Part Two is titled “Paths of Power.” And Part Three is titled “A New Power in the World.” Part One “Part One: Reimagining Power” asserts that power should not exclusively be viewed as the masculine tendency to acquire wealth, status, and other external aspects of power. It should also be viewed as a way of being and becoming. Power is simply internally derived. Women functions with that assumption in mind, and this should be respected and not be misconstrued that women are weak. One of the ways that power can be re-imagined is by viewing it as a source of economic power. Riane Eisler in her essay “The Economics of the Enlightened Use of Power” reports the findings of the United Nations that the status of women in a particular country is a much better predictor of quality of life than leading economic indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product. Furthermore in the same essay, it is reported that more gender inequality is correlated strongly with high incidences of illiteracy. Knowledge of the unique contribution of women to the betterment of the quality of life certainly should give them dignity. Hence, it is not necessary that women acquire too much assertiveness or money in order to be powerful. “Deeper Power by Carol Anderson and Patricia Shafer also illustrates the last point. They point out that the perception of power is an important consideration. Whatever a person considers as the source of power will mean a very big difference whether that person will feel empowered or not. For example, consider the story of Patricia. Her education, which she thought originally as her source of power, almost deprived her with the true power. Her training made her to try being assertive like a man. This attempt did not prove to be effective. When she realized that she wanted to feel appreciated for what she is. From that realization in her solitude, she redefined power as such, and she became more effective. Therefore, a woman should be what she feels she really likes to be. She must define her worth as a human being. By then, she can acquire true power, power in her own terms and without the necessity of trying to be a male leader. Part Two “Part Two: Paths of Power” gives several contributions by different authors by which women could express the power discovered and developed in Part One. These paths are made through “bold expression, risk-taking, innovation, conflict resolution, new models for thinking about structure and network, and the creation of work environments large enough in spirit to accept our diverse selves as leaders across boundaries and cultural divides.” Case in point would we Herminia Ibarra’s essay “Our Many Possible Selves.” She cites the findings by Stanford psychologist Hazel Markus that people are not one self but many selves. Hence, women should try to rework their identities and express the power that they inherently have. Part Three “Part Three: A New Power in the New World” provides real-life stories on how the insights in Parts One and Two are applied. Through different trials and hardships endured, different women have asserted their power for the good of humanity. Relational Leadership Over-all, the essays above are related by the ideas of the relatively new concept of relational leadership. This concept states that leadership “is always dependent on the context, but the context is established by the relationships we value.” (Wheatley 1992, as cited in “What is relational leadership?” n.d.) This idea as originated by Joyce Fletcher states that leadership is people-oriented, subjective through our perceptions. (Erkut, n.d.) For example, consider “Our Many Possible Selves.” The author has weaved together without being much theoretical the stories of different women. In particular, Susan’s life tells of how she resolved the different contradictions of her life. She stopped playing the role that was imposed on her, and pursued what she really wanted to do. Hence, there are things that traditional leadership cannot address. The author of this essay has effectively shown that the deeper issues of identity, authenticity, and other priorities matter. Consider also “The Power of Shifting Context.” We already learned that true leadership in Fletcher’s sense is relational and context based. To the degree that a woman and her context are congruent and without friction, that will be the degree by which she will be effective. In this essay, we learned of Sarah who was appointed to an important position due to her previous accomplishments. This is how traditional leadership theories operate, i.e. results-oriented. However, she failed dismally and “put her nose in the grindstone” since she really believed that being a “local girl makes good.” This limiting context was not anticipated and the results thereafter proved more or less disappointing for her. But context could also be used properly as in the case of Carly Fiorina. To make the long story short, she asked her relational leadership expert to design programs by which HP’s work force could operate effectively. This resulted in having HP saved tons of money. These cases only illustrate what relational leadership is saying all along: that context is important because it is powerful. Context such as underlying beliefs and intangible variables always affect how a person, especially women, will perform. Poor knowledge of context is a sure way to flop, and this is not something that a leader especially of a nation cannot afford to commit. Relevance to Work There are several essays in this work that are relevant in work. I deal with several people. Sometimes my way of dealing with them is successful; sometimes it is not. It is easy for me to cry whenever things do not go my way. But the essay by Barbara Corcoran “Failing Well” really hit me at the core. I learned that failing is essential in life, and failing is essential for learning. I also learned that in including failure as a component of learning, I became free to have fun. She relates of how she used the element of fun to motivate her team of sales people. Like me involved in sales, I have seen firsthand that people no matter good will not perform at their best when they feel the drudgery and boringness of work. She really knows her stuff. The thing that surprised me the most was her extreme attitude for failure. I have heard that sometimes failure lays just a few steps before victory. However, this woman has effectively and consistently used failure for her side. She mentioned her real estate business hit a snag, when the market crashed. However, she discovered the potential of the Internet for marketing real estate. Within weeks, customers from the other side of the globe called her. Eventually, some people have caught up with the idea of using the Internet to market real estate, but she managed to stay far ahead in the competition by trying up to 50 different ways of Internet marketing. Some of these failed, but out of those failures produced success. I really wished that I have read this essay many years back. I will no longer be afraid of failure, and I will attempt to make good use of it so that my sales team will produce better results. Great Inspiration But sometimes, balancing work and life has caused tremendous stress. There were times that I did not like to work, but I had no choice but to go out and make a living. Now, reading the essay “Work as Love Made Visible” by Gail Strub made me to reconsider my wrong attitude on work. But even more important lesson is having the courage to leave a work or current occupation to pursue a passion no matter how difficult the path and obstacles that must be faced by a dreamer. These difficulties give life meaning. Truly, Life if viewed with meaning is bearable. Unfortunately, I did not possess such maturity in the previous years. I thought then that the primary purpose of life is simply to exist, to work, eat, and someday die. However, in relation to the subjective meaning of power, and this essay, I learned that there is a better way to live life, i.e. to find and work for a meaningful purpose. Some find this in business; others, in missionary work; it depends. I found it in sales, and the author concludes that it is similar to the stages of a hero’s journey. In retrospect, I realized that I had to undergo a personal quest for fulfillment. I am in the middle of this journey, and this essay has made me realized what I went through and those that I will experience further. The Call After watching several movies, reading books, and meeting some significant persons, I knew right from the start that I was called to be a sales person. Of course, my parents objected. They did not like the attitude of some sales peoples. Those unscrupulous ones managed to sell my parents products that they really did not need and that they would have not bought if not for the superior sales talk of those people. Being an obedient child, I had to defer to my parents. But this decision I learned later was a blunder. Unknowingly, I had surrendered my quest for meaning. It was insidious actually. I became conditioned that one must be practical in life, and that a person will be better off by being a highly paid professional. Later on, I realized that this is not the path to happiness. Accordingly, Gail Strub was right that work is an expression of a woman’s love. I realized that by choosing to study about a profession I did not really like, I deprived myself of enjoying school. During those vulnerable moments, especially when I suddenly experienced depression, the old ghosts of passion haunt me. I really wanted to go to sales. The essay later confirmed that my decision to seek out my passion was right. So I sought people who could help me in the world of sales. Awakening Even though I wanted to work in sales, I was also bothered with the fact that sales and marketing is a job dominated by men. I was a little frightened, but I had no other choice. During those trying times, I was lucky to meet my mentor. I learned to love everything I do, not just sales. I became aware of my potential for leadership, and soon I might outperform several men. Journey Reading this essay has sparked the necessary force that would set me in the beginning of a journey. I am still learning along the way, but I always refer to this essay whenever I feel lost in boredom and sometimes sadness, when I tend to lose focus on what I really want. But hey, it was a great insight to know that work is the ultimate expression of a woman’s love, and passion is the key to a person’s happiness. Conclusion From the essays just surveyed and my personal experiences, it can be seen that leadership should not and could not be defined exclusively from the perspective of men. Men prefer tangible things like power, money, and assertiveness. If leadership and power could only be defined in such terms, then only men can and should hold positions of power and authority. But this is not case. There are several women in this world that rose to leadership like Condoleezza Rice. They are the ones who have redefined leadership and power in terms of what women can potentially and actually do. It is therefore imperative that further research into the roles of women in leadership must be undertaken. The book Enlightened Power has been a good step into that direction. And it is my sincere hope of writing in the future a book like this one that will help raise the consciousness of women to assume more leadership roles. References Coughlin, L. (2005). Enlightened power: How women are transforming the practice of leadership (E. Wingard & K. Hollihan, Eds.). New York: Wiley. Erkut, S. (n.d.) Learning from women leaders. Retrieved 6 April 2009, from http://www.windsofchange.org/research/article1.pdf What is relational Leadership? (n.d.)Retrieved 6 April 2009, from http://work911.com/leadership-development/faq/relational.htm Read More