A Leader born from Crisis – Emma Gonzalez
On February 2nd, 1602, in the Second Act of the Premiere of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Malvolio utters a line that has been used to describe leaders since. “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ’em.” Though Northouse (2016) doesn’t use Malvolio’s exact turn of phrase, he does outline the environmental influences that can thrust a person into leadership. While the bulk of chapters two and three of Northouse (2016) discuss traits and skills of leaders, he also discusses environmental influences in great detail. These factors can be internal or external. I find these influences to be continually more powerful in the lives of young people in America in the last few years. One such group of teens getting increased awareness over the past year is Emma Gonzalez and the rest of the #NeverAgain group – the survivors of the Parkland School Shooting.
Just over 416 years later, on February 14, 2018, a group of four Floridian teenagers had this greatness thrust upon them when an armed teenager entered their high school and murdered 17 of their fellow classmates and teachers (Sanchez, 2018). In the following weeks, American gun lobbyists placed blame solely on the shooter and his mental health, while Emma Gonzalez, leader of the group of NeverAgain kids (Alex Wind, Cameron Kasky, David Hogg, and Jaclyn Corin at the front), famously cried “This is B.S.” So began a high-school movement for gun control lead by Emma Gonzalez. Her fearless leadership can be traced to not only her skills, but to both internal and external environmental influences.
Emma is not just any other student who was at Parkland last Valentine’s Day. There are students who did not step up and lead a movement of millions of young Americans (Alter, 2018). She is not without the skills she needs to be a leader of the movement, not just a follower. Gonzalez is an 18-year-old Cuban American who likely would’ve been a leader no matter the circumstance. In fact, she already was. Gonzalez lead her school’s Gay-Straight-Alliance for three years. She has a powerful voice, she is outspoken and well-written. Northouse (2016) claims that leaders should have social judgement, emotional intelligence, knowledge, cognitive abilities, and a strong personality, among others.
The world saw Gonzalez’s emotional intelligence as she led a group of lawmakers, students, and their families in 6-minutes of silence to mark the time the gunman attacked her fellow students at the “March for our Lives” rally. She and her group have scoured law books and the internet to gain as much knowledge as possible. The teenager has never shied away from expressing her personality, through her punk style and shaved head (Chavez & Ahmed, 2018).
It is these internal, controlled skills that have allowed her to thrive when the opportunity thrust itself upon her. That opportunity, the second Valentine’s Day Massacre in American History, was the key stimulus for the #NeverAgain movement, but that is not the extent of the environmental influences that are attributing to Gonzalez’s successful leadership.
Internal environmental influences are those that are coming from within the organization (Northouse, 2018). Because of the vast membership of Gonzalez’s movement, she is essentially leading a nation. Her voice is being heard by millions of people through rallies, marches, speeches, and Twitter. Gonzalez joined twitter just after the shooting and in less than two weeks she had amassed more followers than the NRA (Alter, 2018). Northouse (2016) lists potential internal environmental influences as technology, facilities, expertise of subordinates, and communication. The #NeverAgain movement takes place primarily online, helping Gonzalez’s reach. The group has used Social Media Platforms to push their message. They have created viral videos. They have used Facebook and Twitter to create the March for Our Lives, a nationwide event held on March 24 that boasted over 800 demonstrations in all 50 states and on six continents (Alter, 2018).
External environmental influences are those forces that can affect leadership ability outside of the organization, such as economic, political, and social issues (Northouse, 2016). In taking on a complex cultural, societal, and legal status of gun control/reform, Gonzalez and the #NeverAgain crew have stepped into what is already is a virtual landmine. This has both made Gonzalez’s job easier and harder. Kasky calls the other teenagers involved in the movement “the mass-shooting generation” as the number of Americans killed in mass violence continues to grow (Alter, 2018). This external circumstance has resulted in a generation of young people who are scared, who are fearful. Leaders in Psychology today agree that the most powerful motivator is fear (Wilson, 2009). While government has used this fact to lead Americans into wars, the #NeverAgain movement has used this to their advantage.
While the event that pushed Emma to leadership was a tragedy, she is using her skills to navigate the internal and external environmental influences to lead a movement of millions of teens to say Never Again will there be a school shooting in America.
Breaking Update: Literally as I am posting this, news has just flashed across my computer that there is currently an active High School Shooting in Texas.
References
Alter, C. (2018). How Parkland Students Are Taking on Politicians in the Gun Control Battle. [online] Time. Available at: http://time.com/longform/never-again-movement/ [Accessed 18 May 2018].
Northouse, P. (2016). Leadership. Los Angeles, Calif. [u.a.]: SAGE.
Sanchez, R. (2018). Inside the Florida school massacre, moment by moment. [online] CNN. Available at: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/18/us/parkland-florida-school-shooting-accounts/index.html [Accessed 18 May 2018].
Shakespeare, W. (1602). No Fear Shakespeare: Twelfth Night: Act 2, Scene 5, Page 7. [online] Nfs.sparknotes.com. Available at: http://nfs.sparknotes.com/twelfthnight/page_110.html [Accessed 18 May 2018].
Williams, 2018.Lesson Commentary. PSU. Retrieved from: https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1940315
Wilson, R. (2009). The Most Powerful Motivator. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-main-ingredient/200909/the-most-powerful-motivator [Accessed 18 May 2018].