Throughout the history of our nation only a fragment of individuals, have been able to affect the countless lives as Maya Angelou has. Maya Angelou was a woman of many words, that happen to demonstrate transformational leadership that touched lives across the globe. ‘To create changes, transformational leaders become strong role models for their followers.” (Northouse, 2016) Transformational Leadership is a process that changes and transforms people. It is attentive to the emotions, values, ethics, standards, and goals of people. Through Maya Angelou has marked her legacy of using her life to reach individuals around the world, through her amazing accomplishments as a poet, author, and a civil rights leader she impacted tremendous amounts of people that continue to see her transformational leadership as inspiration till this day. In this blog we will highlight her galvanizing leadership as a civil rights leader, and poet.
In the 1950’s she helped lead the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as the SCLC’s northern coordinator. Mrs. Angelou became good friends with the SCLC’s President, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is during this time where Mrs. Angelou sought out to empower followers and nurture them to produce in them a positive change. Maya also organized and starred in the musical revue Cabaret for Freedom as a benefit for the SCLC (Biography, 2019). “Transformational leaders set out to empower followers and nurture them in change”. (Northouse,2016)
During the 1960’s Mrs. Angelou spent plenty of time abroad in Ghana where she joined a community of “revolutionist returnees” in effort to explore pan-Africanism (Maya Angelou, 2019). It is in Ghana that where Mrs. Angelou, met and became close friends with human rights activist and black nationalist leader Malcolm X. In 1964 Maya Angelou was instrumental with helping Malcolm X create the Organization of Afro-American Unity (Biography, 2019). Maya became a social architect within the organization and helped give a vision to the organization which is want transformational leaders do. “It gives the leader and the organization a conceptual map for were the organization is headed; it gives meaning and clarifies the organization’s identity.”(Northouse, 2016)
Another aspect of Maya Angelou’s leadership is when she impacted people through her captivating books, poetry and wise quotes. In 1969 Mrs. Angelou’s most astounding writing was, “I know why the caged bird sings” (Biography, 2019). She writes about her childhood and young adult years. The heart-rending story achieved literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman (Biography, 2019). Maya used her autobiography to apply transformational leadership to countless lives across the world by addressing complicated issues in society such as identity, racism, and rape. In 2002, Mrs. Angelou followed up with another one of her autobiography works by writing “A Song Flung Up to Heaven” (Biography, 2019). The story illustrates Maya’s return from Africa to the United States. It discusses her struggles to cope with the assassination of two civil rights leaders whom she worked with which are Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X.
In 1981“The Heart of a woman” was published by Maya Angelou. This memoir focused on her leaving California to New York to take part of the Civil Rights Movement. Maya Angelou was the first African American woman to have her screenplay produced. The screenplay “Georgia” was produced in 1972 she broke new barriers artistically, educationally, and socially. The transformational approach to leadership is a broad-based perspective that encompasses many facets and dimensions of the leadership process”. (Northouse, 2016) This amazing accomplishment helped educate and pave the way for other prominent African American women of today. “In general, it describes how leaders can initiate, develop, and carry out significant changes in organizations”. (Northouse, 2016)
Over the length of her illustrious career Maya Angelou has received many accolades, such as the Chicago’s International Film Festival’s 1998 Audience Choice Award as well as an acknowledgement from the Acapulco Black Film Festival in 1999. She also won two NAACP image awards in the outstanding literary work category, for her 2005 cookbook and 2008’s Letter to my Daughter.
In conclusion, Maya Angelou became one of the world’s most transformational leaders by touching countless lives from her literary work, civil rights advocate, as well as personal contact. Through Maya’s courage and determination many prominent women of today stand on her shoulders. Maya Angelou lived her life to inspire millions of her followers to grow, learn, and become the best individuals they can be! Throughout history there has been many leaders who have strove to have people remember them by their deeds or actions, but I believe what truly sets Maya Angelou apart from countless leaders is by how she made people feel when she had contact with their life. “In the end, transformational leadership results in people feeling better about themselves and their contributions to the greater common good”. (Northouse, 2016)
Maya Angelou. (2019, August 28). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/writer/maya-angelou.https://www.biography.com/writer/maya-angelou
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications
Simon Swengler says
Letticia,
Thank you for post on Maya Angelou. Although the name sounded familiar to me, I honestly did not know anything about her or what she had done in her life. It was a pleasure to learn about her from your post and other resources regarding her life and accomplishments.
The Full Range of Leadership model presents four factors to transformational leadership (Northouse, 2016), which I think Ms. Angelou exhibited through her behaviors. The first factor is idealized influence (Northouse, 2016). This factor addresses how well the leader represents a role model for the followers, inspiring them to emulate the leader’s behaviors and characteristics (Northouse, 2016). It is measured by the leader’s attributional and behavioral components (Northouse, 2016). I believe a statement by the former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Beebe well summarizes the leadership characteristics of Ms. Angelou when he stated, “She drew from a troubled and painful childhood to write books and poems that have inspired countless others. From Stamps, Arkansas, to the steps of the U.S. Capitol for President Clinton’s inauguration, Maya Angelou showed how strength, determination and honesty can take us all to the heights of greatness” (Fox News, 2014, para. 14). Ms. Angelou exhibited idealized influence through her strength to overcome many adversities in her life through hard work and perseverance, and these are characteristics to which we should all aspire to achieve.
Another factor of the transformational leadership is inspirational motivation (Northouse, 2016). This factor addresses how the leader inspires and motivates followers to contribute to organizational goals (Northouse, 2016). This involves the use of emotional appeals as well as symbols to motivate followers to accomplish more than they would on their own (Northouse, 2016). This was something that Ms. Angelou did through her many books. She even helped inspire former First Lady Michelle Obama who said at the BET Honors “Maya Angelou teaches us that it’s not enough merely to seek greatness for ourselves. We must help others discover the greatness within themselves. We need to reach down…and reach out…and give back…and lift up others the way Maya has lifted us” (Curtis, 2012, para. 3). The words of Mrs. Obama show how truly powerful transformational leadership can be when it creates a ripple effect in the followers it inspires.
The third factor of transformational leadership is intellectual stimulation. “It encourages followers to think things out on their own and engage in careful problem solving” (Northouse, 2016, p. 169). Maya Angelou’s poetry reflects her talented intellect and how she could use illustrative descriptions to bring enlightened perspectives to readers, causing them to think differently than they would on their own. Reading through some of her poems, I found none more moving than that of Caged Bird (1983). In the poem, she contrasts the perspectives of two birds, one caged and one free, writing:
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom. (Angelou, 1983)
For myself, I can think of no better way to contrast the difference of those with freedom, and those without. It also provides the perspective of the cost and value of freedom. This example shows how Ms. Angelou’s poetry provides the intellectual stimulation that is a powerful factor to transformational leadership.
The final factor of transformational leadership to consider is individualized consideration, which addresses the way leaders provide a supportive climate for their organizations, coaching their members to reach higher potential (Northouse, 2016). This characteristic of Ms. Angelou’s leadership could best be described by the highly successful Oprah Winfrey, who wrote:
“I’ve been blessed to have Maya Angelou as my mentor, mother/sister, and friend since my 20s. She was there for me always, guiding me through some of the most important years of my life. The world knows her as a poet but at the heart of her, she was a teacher. ‘When you learn, teach. When you get, give’ is one of my best lessons from her.” (Minzesheimer, 2014, para. 7)
Clearly Ms. Angelou was a significant transformational leader for the many who knew her and read her books and poems. She had overcome many adversities and through them, worked hard to become the influential leader we now remember. However, I don’t think this was her goal, but rather she just wanted to make the world a better place. Her leadership behaviors reflected her beliefs and perspectives of how people should treat one another. Nowhere is this more apparent than when she said “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” (Gallo, 2014, para. 2).
Thanks again for posting and motivating me to learn about such an inspirational person and leader!
Simon
Reference:
Angelou, M. (1983). Caged Bird. In Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? New York, NY: Penguin Random House LLC.
Curtis, C. (2012, January 16). First Lady Michelle Obama Celebrates Maya Angelou at BET Honors. Retrieved from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/01/16/first-lady-michelle-obama-celebrates-maya-angelou-bet-honors
Fox News. (2014, May 28). Renowned poet, author Maya Angelou dead at 86. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/us/renowned-poet-author-maya-angelou-dead-at-86
Gallo, C. (2014, May 31). The Maya Angelou Quote That Will Radically Improve Your Business. Forbes.com. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/05/31/the-maya-angelou-quote-that-will-radically-improve-your-business/#6830570e118b
Minzesheimer, B. (2014, May 28). Poet Maya Angelou dies at age 86. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/usanow/2014/05/28/maya-angelou-dies-at-age-86/9663497/
Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.