Shared Power Leadership, Movie Thoughts
Being a learner who has to let things digest a bit to gain insight, I wanted to follow up with the comments that have come to me since Tuesday's Class.
I commented about how change is coming to medicine...a paradigm shift to holism. All of these changes I see are about the ability to see the whole picture. While each part of the picture is extremely important in life, it is the ability to see how they interrelate that brings the meaning and the answers. Something the right brain is good at. These changes are from my perception about the more feminine part of us, compassion and creativity and the ability to see the big picture. I feel that this relates to what Diane was talking about, in class and a discussion after class, an important quality to have a leader that is "connected" to their inner self or soul...the masculine and the feminine (my words). In relection on the movie, I see all of this in the Grandmother. What strength and leadership she showed her granddaughter. She was unmoved by her husband's authority. Her response to his, " I am the boss!' was, "not in this kitchen your not!" And her private confession to her granddaughter was, "I let him think he is the boss!" She was also incredibly patient with her husband throughout the movie and with her son when his wife died. I am thinking she displayed the essence of the new leadership for the "common good," that our world is coming to. The compassion, patience, wisdom and strength she showed is an inspiration to me. Thanks for listening, Bette Jo
Login to the blog
Post a new entry
Subscribe in a reader
Comments
Sorry, but I disagree. I didn't see the Grandmother as a leader. I thought she was enabling a lot of dysfunctional behavior in her husband and sons. She didn't take risks, didn't communicate a compelling vision of a future, didn't motivate or organize the community or even her family to action. She followed a leader (her husband and the tribal chief) when she believed his behavior to be wrong. Her walk didn't match her talk. -- nan
Posted by: Nan Jahnke | February 1, 2008 10:16 AM
Well, ok, let me ride the fence. I think the extent to which one sees the grandmother as a leader or an enabler is entirely dependent on which glasses one is wearing when watching the movie.
For example, I believe the simple strength the grandmother possessed and displayed, evidenced by her ability to remain nurturing in the face of a such a male dominated society, may have served to instruct her granddaughter in the ways of compassion. The grandmother's posturing was largely done as an aside but I believe was instructive in that it taught the value of subtlety, mild irreverence and perseverance as tools.
I can also agree that from a more feminist perspective the grandmother's behavior could absolutely be interpreted as enabling and a negative influence on her granddaughter. From this angle she is an anti-role model. One hopes that her granddaughter recognizes the falseness of her attitude and learns to avoid comparable attitudes and behavior.
From atop the fence I believe I can see how these two diverse perspectives meld to provide the granddaughter, if not a leader, at least powerful insight into the roles and characteristics necessary to lead. From the same person, a family member as well as a person of authority in her life, she was provided the opportunity to learn that tolerance, flexibility, determination, compassion and intuition are key components of successful leadership. She also learned that leaders sometimes have to make hard choices and to expect that everyone will always make the right choice is unrealistic. Far more lies behind the decision making process than simply the belief in what is right or wrong. She also learned that being a leader can require the strength to set aside insults, slights, and opposition in order to accomplish a goal. Overcoming conflicts - both internal and external - is crucial to leadership. Heroics alone won't get her there, in the end she had to absorb and chart her own path to leadership determining along the way which tools to carry and which to shed.
Posted by: Sarah Waldemar | February 4, 2008 09:13 PM