Introduction to Documentary Self-Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker is an emotional series that takes viewers through the life of Madam C.J. Walker. She built an everlasting empire by overcoming adversity, standing for her beliefs, and prioritizing her company. She is the first self-made female millionaire in the United States, where she tirelessly worked to sell her hair growth product. This idea came into existence after she experienced hair loss early in life. She bought a product a few days later from a colleague, and after asking if she could sell it, she received a racially cruel response. This interaction served as the driving motivation to break outside of the typical “woman” mold and create a new life for herself. Her story is filled with personal challenges in …show more content…
Madam, with a “power over” dynamic, made a deal with Saunders Drug Store that could potentially cause the saleswomen to be laid off. When her saleswomen went on strike against this deal, Madam finally took steps towards empowerment by weighing the input of her saleswomen and decided to pull away from the deal. Collaborating and listening to their concerns built more confidence and trust within her organization. She began a new pathway, providing employees with opportunities to become leaders themselves. Employees went on to open their salons, and become factory forewomen, national saleswomen, and supervisors at beauty schools. Ultimately, while Madam’s leadership style did not always encompass the viewpoint of her employees, she was able to make a shift and foster an environment of empowerment and inclusivity. Conclusion This film proved to be a great example of how promoting empowerment, and avoiding it, can affect the workplace. Madam C.J Walker’s journey began with a lack of empathy, and we saw how this affected her results and the individuals working alongside
Ms. Powell is a leader who gets results. She uses three distinct leaderships styles. These styles are authoritative and coaching. Amazingly enough Ms. Powell is very flexible and able to move between the three rather easily. When using her authoritative approach, she is acting as an expert and defines goals for her team ("Authoritative," n.d.). Usually, authoritative leaders allow their team to figure out the best way to achieve the established goals. However, this is not the case, nor the preferred method as a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant. Instead, Ms. Powell provides a step-by-step path to success that is provided to her from the Mary Kay Cosmetics Headquarters. These step-by-step guides are considered training and provide the requirements to achieving specific levels of professionalism within the company. Thus, these leaders tend to look for people to work with them, people who can mobilize toward a vision (Goleman, 2000). Ms. Powell displays this characteristic when working with her beauty consultants. However, another major characteristic of Ms. Powell is she recognizes that not all of her consultants will be as energetic or eager as she with regards to selling cosmetics. Therefore, she moves toward a coaching style of leadership.
Background Known today as Madam CJ Walker that was not the name she was given on December 23, 1867. Sarah was orphaned at the young age of seven and was able to survive by working in the cotton fields of Delta and Mississippi. In an attempt to escape abuse from her sisters, (Louvenia sisters name) husband she married at the age of 14 (married Moses McWilliams). She has one daughter names Lelia, currently known as A'Lelia Walker.
Deborah Tannen brings up the issue of how women are often labeled bossy when is positions of authority in her article. ““Bossy” Is More Than a Word to Women”. She explains the everyday struggle that these women go through and the on going patriarchy in the work force. From their diction down to minute ways that women present themselves it seems that they are scrutinized in every way possible. Deborah faces these issues head on with a woman’s perspective allowing those unaware and men a small glimpse into the difficult life of women everywhere. She falls a little short on some of her theories for why this may be because of the lack of research. Besides that it is a very passionate and informative article because these issues continue to happen, whether or not she is correct about the source of these issues. Deborah makes sure to have her points come across clearly by using buzz words, writing with a passionate tone, and falls short with some of her theories by having insignificant research.
Sarah Breedlove “Madam C.J Walker” was born in Louisiana to former slaves on December 23, 1867. She was the first member of her family to be born “free,” and used this opportunity to have a better life. She married Moses McWilliams and gave birth to her first daughter, Lelia, on June 6, 1885. Unfortunately, soon after her daughter’s second birthday her husband was killed in an accident. She found a job as a laundress in St. Louis, Missouri and thus provided her daughter with an education that she never had the chance to get.
“A woman’s name is as dear to her as a man’s is to him, and custom ought, and will prevail, where each will keep their own names when they marry, and allow the children at a certain age to decide which name they will prefer.” (Great Lives in History). This was a quote that May Edwards Walker lived by, it was meant for the time when she was married and didn’t take her husbands last name. Mary Edwards Walker was born in the rural part of Oswego, New York on November 26, 1832. There is a historical marker placed at her birthplace on Bunker Hill. She was a sibling to four sisters, Aurora, Luna, Vesta, Cynthia and one brother, Alvah Junior. Her parents were Alvah and Vesta Walker. Mary’s family was an abolitionist family.
Who is Madam C.J. Walker? What did she contribute to the world of science? How did she start her business? What types of obstacles did she have to face? I will be talking about this and more in my biography about Civil Rights Activist and entrepreneur, Madam C.J. Walker.
This case study demonstrates a young woman leader, Toby Johnson, who used to serve in the military as a pilot and attended Harvard Business School, joined PepsiCo’s Leadership Development Program (LDP), and was working in the management team at the Williamsport plant. She determined to forge ahead, and led the plant to achieve the Level 3 CI and also won the Doolin Award, which the Williamsport plant had never achieved before. The problem that Johnson encounters currently is that if the plant should continue to forge ahead and achieve the ultimate Level 4 CI, which will cost huge amount of money and efforts with the risk of her sudden leave of plant.
In 1942, Margaret Walker won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for her poem For My People. This accomplishment heralded the beginning of Margaret Walker’s literary career which spanned from the brink of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s to the cusp of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s (Gates and McKay 1619). Through her fiction and poetry, Walker became a prominent voice in the African-American community. Her writing, especially her signature novel, Jubilee, exposes her readers to the plight of her race by accounting the struggles of African Americans from the pre-Civil War period to the present and ultimately keeps this awareness relevant to contemporary American society.
In the American society, we constantly hear people make sure they say that a chief executive officer, a racecar driver, or an astronaut is female when they are so because that is not deemed as stereotypically standard. Sheryl Sandberg is the, dare I say it, female chief operating officer of Facebook while Mark Zuckerberg is the chief executive officer. Notice that the word “female” sounds much more natural in front of an executive position, but you would typically not add male in front of an executive position because it is just implied. The fact that most of America and the world makes this distinction shows that there are too few women leaders. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In,” she explains why that is and what can be done to change that by discussing women, work, and the will to lead.
Wilson, Marie C. Closing the Leadership Gap Why Women Can and Must Help Run the World. New York: Viking Adult, 2004. Print
Unfortunately, being inspiring to employees is not enough. These situations occur when employees face challenges in accomplishing goals. In such situations, a leader needs to exercise power and influence to push forth the desired goals. While the course identified five sources of power, I believe only three should be considered for an effective leader. The first is legitimate power (6), which is often considered the first source of power in the organizations I have worked in. The source of power comes...
The theme of the poem “The Bells”, by Edgar Allan Poe, is the lifespan and progression of human existence. The mood is split into four different parts because the poem shows the different stages of life and emotion. First, the mood starts off as excitement and joy. This stage represents childhood and youth. Then, the mood changes into celebration and hope.
To begin, the modernized feminist movement has altered the way gender roles are viewed in society. Women are pushing for complete control in nearly every aspect of life. Many feminists believe women could do just as well, if not better, than men have been doing in leadership positions. Many women fail to realize that ingrained in men is a desire to protect and lead. By taking over men’s roles, they leave men not knowing exactly what should be done.
Employee empowerment can be a powerful tool. The leadership style can increase efficiency and effectiveness inside an organization. Empowerment can also increase productivity and allow managers more tim...
Women leaders have the crucial soft skills of empathy, innovation, facilitation, and active listening (Masaoka, 2006). They also have first-hand life experiences that bring technical skills and experiences from the street level to the workplace (Masoka, 2006). Women often build stronger relationships with clients and outside contacts than their male counterparts. This relationship building skill, provides a key aspect which helps to move businesses forward (Giber et al., 2009). Fortune 500 companies with a high percentage of women significantly outperformed those with fewer women. Companies with the highest representation of women showed higher returns on equity than those with fewer women employees (Giber et al., 2009). Thus, future organizations may have a higher percentage of female leaders than we have experienced in the past. Future leaders must ensure that there is equality among the workforce and that women are accurately represented among the