This summer, while teaching my Introduction to I\/O Psychology course, we had a discussion on different leadership theories. \u00a0When we discuss these theories, it helps for me to have examples of different well known leaders so that the kids can see the strengths and weaknesses of each theoretical perspective. \u00a0Some observations: \u00a0MLK, JFK, and Ghandi have all been useful examples over the years. \u00a0Oprah has aged out as a well-known leader for the students. \u00a0With a little bit of prodding, students get the idea of Jim Jones. \u00a0Certainly, Steve Jobs was quite appropriate for the last year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This summer, one of my students, in trying to relate to a leader who changed society or started a social movement declared that Katniss Everdeen<\/a>, from the Hunger Games Trilogy<\/a>\u00a0was a transformational leader. \u00a0Since I had not read the books at the time, I could not say Yay or Nay. \u00a0So I read them, thinking I might be able to use her as another example that Kids These Days could relate to.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wait. \u00a0I did not read the trilogy. \u00a0I devoured<\/em> it. I read the entire trilogy in 10 days. \u00a0Then I but them down for 48 hours. \u00a0And then I read the entire trilogy again. \u00a0I LOVE these books. \u00a0Indeed, I spent most of July in Panem<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But here’s the thing: \u00a0Katniss Everdeen is NOT\u00a0<\/strong>a transformational leader. \u00a0Yes, she was the inspiration for an entire movement or rebellion, but it seems to me that she inspired based on what people projected upon her. \u00a0She is charismatic, but she no rhetorical skills. \u00a0Peeta did, but you know, in the third book, EVENTS OCCURRED and he was not so much on the leadership train.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In fact, although I admired Katniss’ physical skills, hunting prowess and ability to quickly analyze a social situation, she annoyed me mightily. \u00a0It took me until I was halfway through the third book the second time to figure out why: \u00a0she didn’t act; she reacted. \u00a0(Well, there was that one big act at the end, but otherwise? \u00a0Reacting) \u00a0I like my heroines on more of the feminist side (i.e., Buffy<\/a>). \u00a0 And yes, with Katniss’ physicality and not being boycrazy (Bella<\/a>, we are all looking at you, bless your heart), she is a good role model for girls. But I perceive that real transformational leaders have a positive goal for the group that is not imposed upon them and \u00a0that they are more active in creating and projecting themselves as the leaders to help their followers reach these goals.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But hey. \u00a0I’m open. \u00a0What do you think? \u00a0I certainly think this could be a great conversation in a class where folks know who Katness Everdeen is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This summer, while teaching my Introduction to I\/O Psychology course, we had a discussion on different leadership theories. \u00a0When we discuss these theories, it helps for me to have examples of different well known leaders so that the kids can see the strengths and weaknesses of each theoretical perspective. \u00a0Some observations: \u00a0MLK, JFK, and Ghandi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p67nDP-38","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":335,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2018\/03\/16\/spring-break-study-abroad-to-prague-part-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":0},"title":"Spring Break Study Abroad to Prague: Part 3","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This entry should be titled: Professors Learn Things, too. In addition to focusing on what the students can learn about multicultural teams in multinational organizations, I also used this trip as a way to enrich my own understanding of work and employees.\u00a0 I'm an organizational scientist.\u00a0 Nonetheless, I do not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":343,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2018\/10\/18\/your-students-are-cheating\/","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":1},"title":"Your Students Are Cheating","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"October 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"So, this is not a comfortable topic. And, surprisingly, the reaction I most frequently get from my academic colleagues is \"Not my students.\" Alas. Your students are cheating.\u00a0 Not all of them. Not on everything. But on a hell of a lot more than you know, and, apparently, are willing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":325,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2018\/03\/13\/spring-break-study-abroad-to-prague-part-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":2},"title":"Spring Break Study Abroad to Prague: Part 2","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 13, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday, in Part 1, I talked about some the intellectual benefits of our Spring Break Study abroad program. \u00a0 Today, I want to talk about what I perceive as the personal benefits of this sort of trip. It actually surprised me after my first Study Abroad trip to Berlin how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2018\/03\/Novartis-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":264,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2014\/06\/20\/online-classes\/","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":3},"title":"Online Classes","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"June 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I would love to start a discussion of online classes in this post (so I must remember to turn on comments). So, I just finished my second online class. \u00a0Despite being someone who studies online groups and who has been on email since ((gulp)) 1984, I have not wanted to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2013\/02\/22\/time-in-organizations\/","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":4},"title":"Time in Organizations","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"February 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When I went back to school after working in the \"real world\" for 4 years, one of the differences that struck me was differences in time in the organization. \u00a0I have not studied time in organizations, which is an important area of research. \u00a0What I want to talk about is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":323,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2018\/03\/12\/spring-break-study-abroad-to-prague-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":194,"position":5},"title":"Spring Break Study Abroad to Prague: Part 1","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"We just returned from Prague for a Spring Break Study abroad program focusing on successful international employees, teams, and leaders.\u00a0 I'm dividing this debriefing blog into two parts. Today, I'm talking about what we learned and did.\u00a0 Tomorrow, I'm talking about what it's like to be a professor in close\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}