Journal of Leadership and Organization Studies, 2002, Vol. 9, No. 2

Cinderella Stories Of Women Leaders: Connecting Leadership Contexts And Competencies

Karin Klenke, Ph.D. Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA

with black pitch and Cinderella, in her nightly This paper illustrates central themes of the flight, loses one of her slippers, which the prince Cinderella fairy tale in the leadership of three uses to locate his mystery bride. Despite radical contemporary women leaders, Ruth Simmons, measures such as cutting off toes and heels Mary Kay, and Oprah Winfrey, who exercise attempted by the stepsisters to prove that the lost their leadership in three different contexts, slipper belonged to one of them, they could not academia, business and the media, respectively. pass the test. The prince found his beloved and It then describes the leadership of these women they lived heavily thereafter. in terms of specific competencies, which the While the Brothers Grimm's version is the three contemporary women leaders share and most popular one, the fairy tale is told aroimd that are their defining leadership attributes. the world, focusing on the unbearable family Cinderella themes, context and leadership situation produced by the father's remarriage competencies are linked in a conceptual model and persecution of the heroine by an evil that treats these as antecedents of leadership stepmother. Cinderella stories from many effectiveness. cultures identify these themes and often re-write the fairy tale to reflect culture specific values. For hundreds of years, stories and fairy Sometimes, Cinderella is kind and tales have played an important role in Western compassionate as in the Brothers Grimm's and Eastern cultures. Stories are harbingers of version; at other times, she is cruel and challenges and crises that call for our attention. vindictive as in some cross-cultural renditions of They are conveyors of problems that beg the fairy tale. For example, an Indonesian solutions; they are vehicles for gaining insights Cinderella forces her stepsister into a cauldron into relationships, making decisions, of boiling water, then has her body cut up, implementing policies, and overcoming pickled and sent to the girl's mother as "salt problems of morale and injustice. Stories and meat" for the next meal. A Filipino variant fairy tales provide a moral compass for what is shows the stepmother and her daughters "pulled right and wrong and serve as a barometer for to pieces by wild horses". And a Japanese change. stepsister is dragged around in a basket, tiunbles Most of us are familiar with the Cinderella over the edge, and falls to her death (Philip, fairy tale. It is the story of a beautiful girl of 1989). Despite the elasticity of the Cinderella humble upbringing, a powerless father, wicked character within a given culture, the fairy tales' stepmother, her daughters and their anxious central themes focus on universal issues such jealousies who subject the heroine to one ordeal perseverance in the face of obstacles, dignity of domestic drudgery after another to prevent and self-determination her from going to a ball where the prince is looking for his bride. Each night, Cinderella An earlier version of this paper was presented at the dances the night away with the prince but flees Second-Biannual Storyteiling Conference of the Americas, Brock University, St, Catharines, Ontario, Canada, August before he could make her acquaintance. On the 30-September2, 2001, third night, the prince had the staircase coated Cinderella Stories Of Women Leaders Volume 9, No. 2, 2002 19

There has been a growing interest in the famous "waffle" sole was bom. It is a story leadership, management and organizational about innovation, courage and out-of-the-box behavior literature in storytelling, both as a thinking. It is part of the story of Nike's heritage qualitative methodology and a vehicle for and the first item on the agenda of the organizational change and transformation. company's orientation program for Elkins (Nike Storytelling is a powerful tool that gives us spelled backwards, meaning new hires). Like all access to the living part of an organization. great stories, Nike stories offer archet3q)es such Stories can be used to rally leaders and followers as commitment, trust and innovation. around a specific social, political or cultural Stories emphasize the non-linear, irrational issue or cause. They can be placed in the service aspects of organizational life, the part often not of change efforts that will initially be seen considered by scientists or organizational diflficult, even impossible, upsetting and strange. scholars. Management textbooks rar(;ly talk Storytelling allows the best of what we are to about organizations as complex, fuzzy, irregular, come together - reason and intuition, emotion asymmetrical, random systems, which are in and intellect, empathy and understanding. continuous disequilibriimi and chaos. In the Denning (2001) coined the term intellectual tradition of logical positivism, which springboard story to refer to narratives that dominates management and leadership theory enable a leap in understanding by the audience and research, these are all seen as bad things. so as to grasp how an event, organization, The good things in organizational life are clear, community or complex system may change. A simple, clean, orderly, and neat. Yet intuitively springboard story has an impact not so much we know that the world is not quite this way. through transferring large amounts of Our world is full of complex adaptive systems. information but by catalyzing information into Anywhere we look - people, organizations, action congruent with the personal experience of economies, politics - anything of value is a members of the audience. The teller of a complex adaptive system. springboard story tells her tale in such a way as The purpose of this paper is to apply the to allow some mental space for the central themes embedded in the Cinderella story listeners/readers to forge their own thoughts, to three contemporary women leaders who with the explicit objective of having them invent overcame adversity, poverty, and illness in the analogous stories of their own, in parallel to the pursuit of their visions and goals. Like storyteller's explicit story. Cinderella, the women leaders discussed here were mistreated in their youth by members of Organizational Stories and Corporate their families, ridiculed, exposed to scrutiny and Narratives painful experiences but live happily thereafter. Organizational stories are a medium for The paper treats the experiences of Ruth communicating an organization's central myths Simmons, Mary Kay, and Oprah Winfrey as to insiders and outsiders and infuse them into springboard stories, - inspiring, eye-opening, everyday decisions, policies and practices and gripping, and springboards to new (Bohnan & Deal, 1991). For example, Nike's possibilities - and invites the reader to tell their co-foimder. Coach Broverman, after deciding own stories of the three contemporary women that his team needed better running shoes, went leaders in the context of the conceptual to his workshop and poured rubber into the framework suggested in Figure 1. family's waffle iron and that is how Nike's 20 Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies Klenke

Conceptual Model Linking Cinderella Themes to Leadership Outcomes Through Leadership Attributes

CINDERELLA LEADERSHIP LEADERSHIP THEMES COMPETENCIES OUTCOMES SPRINGBOARD

TRANS- FORMATIONAL/ EMOTIONAL CHARISMATIC INTELLIGENCE TRUST LEADERSHIP

RUTH SIMMONS: A BEACON OF she also learned that whatever you do, "even if it HOPE is scrubbing floors in other people's houses, (as her mother did), do it well, and do it Ruth Simmons' Cinderella Story thoroughly." Simmons' mother influenced her Simmons was bom in rural Texas, the because she was a strong person who taught her youngest of 12 children of Isaac and Fannie to work hard at everything she tried. Her Stubblefield. She moved with her family to teachers were also very important; they helped Houston when she was seven. Her father was a her believe in herself. An extremely talkative tenant fanner who raised cotton. Later on, in child who was an independent thinker, Simmons Houston, he worked in a factory and as a pastor refused to abide her parents' warnings that, of Mount Hermon Missionary Baptist Church; outside of their home, she should be her mother worked as a domestic and took in "obsequious" and "stay in the background". As a ironing while tending to her children. Poverty in youngster, she realized only dimly, if at all, that extremis, the family barely eked out a living. in the segregated milieu in which she was raised, Simmons told People Magazine that while her most blacks and whites assumed that only white sisters and brothers were picking cotton all day people could ever hope to get a college she was too young to do so and kept her head in education, gain membership in the middle class, books. In such a large family, Simmons says, "I or even attend a theatrical performance. "The had to fight hard to be heard, so that's why I talk fact that there was definitely a really low ceiling so much and why I'm so assertive now. I was for me did not enter my mind," she told Massie quite an annoyance to everybody." Ritsch. Her parents' stories about "what mattered At Grapeland's all-black elementary in one's life," Simmons told Massie Ritsch for school, Simmons intelligence and natural the Daily Princetonian (April 5, 1995), taught interest in learning brought her to the attention her that "decency and concern for other people" of Ida Mae Henderson, her kindergarten teacher, were of paramount importance. From her mother who encouraged and nurtured her in the Cinderella Stories Of Women Leaders Volume 9, No. 2, 2002 21

conviction that with help, she would eventually Nancy Regan and Barbara Bush. Educators make a difference in the world. Indeed, well called Simmons' appointment heroic and Smith before entering high school, Simmons became students cheered.. While at Smith, Simmons gripped by the desire not only to make a gained national attention for establisliing the difference but also to "achieve something first engineering program at the ^vomen's spectacular". Simmons credits a kindergarten college and instituting a curriculum wide focus teacher for encouraging her to overcome on public speaking. She provided a paid obstacles. "What made the difference with her, " internship for every undergraduate intern. Simmons said, "was, never in her instructions to During her tenure at Smith, the school's us, never in her vision for us, did she say, "You endowment nearly doubled to $900 million. can do this, but you cannot do that." Last year, Ruth Simmons made history Having grown up in a large family, the again when she was named President of Brown home in which she was raised, and the variety of University and became the first African- experiences she was exposed to, make it easy for American to head an Ivy League School. On her to understand the needs of other people. As a July 2001, she began her duties as the first result, Simmons grew up with an enduring female president of Brown University, the first respect for the dignity of work. "Any work done black president of an Ivy League institution and out of love for one's family and out of obligation the first black woman to lead a national research and duty is noble work", she says. "The fact that university. The appointment represents a you have a lawyer's or a doctor's degree means breakthrough in terms of the recognition of that you can do work that is satisfying to you, people for their ability, "says Shirley Ann but it's not more valuable work. All the work Jackson, president of Rennselaer Polytechnic that is done to make society function is valuable Institute in Troy, N.Y. "Because of Brown's work." position," she says, "it takes on added Ruth Simmons earned her bachelor's significance and hopefiiUy leads to broader degree from Dillard University in New Orleans, thinking, not just higher education, but across all where she graduated summa ciun laude in 1967. sectors of American life." Upon graduation from Dillard, Simmons won a Throughout the academic world, Fulbright and studied in France for a year. She Simmons's appointment has generated completed her doctorate in romance languages at enthusiasm bordering on the ecstatic. It is a very Harvard University in 1973. Her administrative significant milestone in a much longer journey, " career began at Princeton University as Acting says Stanley Ikenberry, president of the Director of the Afro-American Studies program American Council on Education, noting that and as Associate Dean of the Faculty. At now about 20% of college presidents are Princeton, she was widely credited with women, twice as many as a decade ago. "But the revitalizing the university's African-American real message is that Ruth Simmons is a very studies program, attracting to Princeton such sophisticated academic who has had a noted scholars as Toni Morrison and Cornel remarkable background, and so she is a seasoned West. She also served as a Dean of Graduate academic and administrator. Simmons is also a Studies at the University of Southern California, passionate educator and an outspoken advocate before moving on to Spehnan College to become for diversity in higher education, a topic that Provost there. Among the faculty and staff of the "will continue to be a higher intensity issue in universities she was affiliated with, she was the next ten years at it has been in the last 10 regarded as a first rate scholar and a wise, years," Ikenberry says. knowledgeable, and fair administrator. It is a new moment, a new age, a new era, Ruth Simmons continued to make history and Simmons is the personification of that. She when she became President of Smith College in represents opportunity for women, opportunity 1995. She was hailed as the first black president for minorities, and opportunities for people bom of one of the most selective women's colleges of humble experience. The message embedded called the Seven Sisters. Smith College had a in her leadership is that you can transcend these reputation as one of the more conservative of the in the new millennium. According to Simmons, Seven Sisters schools; its graduates include it is this particular time in history when these 22 Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies Klenke

kinds of barriers are prone to come down. recover, Mary Kay mastered her personal Through her own hard times, she came to realize tragedies. her strengths. "I had pivotal experiences that Mary Kay had a vision based on the helped me understand, epiphanies if you will, emerging needs of women in the 1960s and throughout my education," she says. They were 1970s which offered women an appealing career "moments when I had to struggle, and by as beauty consultants, not salespeople, they struggling, I came to imderstand what I could could pursue in their homes. Today, Mary Kay do." beauty consultants are foimd all over the world. Recently, Mary Kay discovered that Russia is a MARY KAY: A TRAILBLAZER FOR fertile market since women there have limited WOMEN IN BUSINESS career opportunities. Mary Kay Russia now has over 5,000 independent beauty consultants, Mary Kay Ash's Cinderella Story many of whom are highly educated women such Mary Kay Ash, was foimder and as former lawyers, doctors, and teachers who chairwoman emeritus of Mary Kay Cosmetics. eam $300-400 a month, about three or four Once-divorced, twice widowed, Mary Kay was times the average salary they made in their twice-born. From the age of seven, she kept former professions. Worldwide, the company house in Hot Wells, TX and cooked and cared prides itself in having more women earning for her father who was bedridden with more than $50,000 per year than any other tuberculosis. After her first husband left her for organization. A complimentary pink Cadillac for another woman, she dropped out of premed high performing consultants serves as a courses she was taking at the University of trademark, sales incentive, and status symbol. Houston and began selling full-time to support One of the important leadership tasks Mary her children. Her second husband, an executive Kay took very seriously was building, in the vitamin industry, collapsed with a heart transmitting, and nurturing corporate culture, attack a month before she launched her own which is manifested in the ubiquitous use of the company. According to Mary Kay, he just fell color pink. The organizational culture is obvious into his plate, his face turned purple. Her third at corporate headquarters in Dallas, the annual husband, Mel Ash, a retiring manufacturing sales convention and the stories about the representative, died in 1980 after 14 years of company that circulate among new recruits. The marriage. Before Mary Kay started her business first fioor of corporate headquarters is a shrine with $5,000, she worked for 25 years in a male dedicated to Mary Kay. Also on display at Mary corporate world. Underpaid and repeatedly Kay headquarters are larger than life passed over for promotions, nothing made her photographs of the company's sales directors, angrier than training a man only to see him which, according to Kotter (1990), say more become her superior. She gambled her $5,000 about corporate strategy than many firms are life savings to launch Mary Kay Cosmetics from able to say in their annual reports. a 500-foot square foot Dallas storefront, a Similarly, the annual sales meetings in gamble that paid off big time. Dallas, to which thousands of beauty consultants Mary Kay Ash is what Harvard fiock every year, make a powerful statement psychologist William James (1902) called twice about corporate culture. Correspondent Kristine bom. She, according to Zaleznik (1977) who McMurran (1985) captured the spirit of the commented on the twice bom concept, "grew convention when she described the beauty through mastering painful conflict during the consultants as assembled in developmental years. Leaders are twice bom "full plumage with brows arched, false individuals who endure major events and crises eyelashes afiutter, and cheeks abloom. En that lead to a sense of separateness and masse they bristle with enough flawlessly estrangement from their environment". In Mary polished, razor sharp fingemails to puncture Kay Ash's case the twice bom encounters came a Goodyear blimp and tear it to tatters" (p. from her childhood and significant relationships 58). with people close to her. Instead of being At these meetings, Mary Kay Ash traumatized by these experiences, never to promoted the vision and mission of her company Cinderella Stories Of Women Leaders Volume 9, No. 2, 2002 23

and motivated her sales force. Top saleswomen She moved in with her mother in Milwaukee as are lavishly praised and rewarded with diamond a preteen when she was 12. A 13-year old cousin baubles, mink coats, and pink Cadillac's. And raped her and she gave birth to a baby which Mary Kay stood out as a "sort of Moses leading was bom prematurely and died when Oprah was her chosen people to a promised land brimming 14. As a youngster, she was constantly in with personal pride and her trademark pink trouble. Once Oprah said, "the fact that someone Cadillacs" (McMurran, 1985, p. 58). as poor as I, as black as I am, from the South, The culture of Mary Kay is also transmitted from rape, from confusion, could move to hope, through stories about the company, which are to possibility, to victory is amazing to me." routed and shared among the beauty consultants Moving to Nashville to live with her father, and headquarter staff. At Mary Kay, successful Vemon Winfrey, tumed her life around. With beauty consultants are rewarded with a twelve- strict rules and the structure of a good value carat pin shaped like a bumblebee. The story that system, Oprah landed her first job as a radio goes with the bumblebee is that the bee has a station reporter while still in high school. She body that is too large for its wings and therefore enrolled in Tennessee State University and should not be able to fly. But it does. And so it is switched to television broadcasting at age 19, with women. They were not expected to succeed anchoring the news at Nashville's WlfVF-TV. in the workforce, but have done so. Mary Kay One of the first black women in college as well was committed to selling women on themselves. as in varsity, Oprah was edging her way into a She had strong ideas about women's roles in the white man's, appearance-obsessed world and workforce and has gained a national reputation became the youngest person and first Afro- as a forceful supporter of women's rights. American woman to anchor the news at The culture of Mary Kay Cosmetics rests Nashville's WTVF-TV. on commitment to customer satisfaction, a pillar In 1984 Oprah moved to Chicago to host built through quality, value, convenience, "AM Chicago", facing the national talk show innovations and personal service (Ash, 1981). It hosted by Phil Donahue as her competition. is transmitted through company symbols, Donahue's shows were focused on providing motivational seminars, pep talks at Mary Kay's viewers with lots of infonnation; however, the home, birthday cards for each consultant, discussions were rarely personalized. Oprah's diamond studded bumblebees, generous style, on the other hand, was different. Utilizing incentives, and an organizational structure that what Deborah Tannen (1995) terms 'rapport promotes individual achievement, economic talk' - that back and forth talk that Tarmen independence for women, and treats the believes is the basis for female friendships - company as an extension of the family. The Oprah shares her heart, passions, and secrets. company's leitmotif, another visible symbol of a Said Winfrey in a 1996 interview, "the strong organizational culture, is the Golden difference between Donahue and me is me. He's Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them more intellectual in his approach. I appeal to the do unto you". Not only is this rule taken heart and relate personally to my audience". In seriously in company decisions, but it also was less than a year, the show was expanded to an the way Mary Kay motivated and led. She led by hour and renamed " The Oprah Winfrey Show". example. The statement, "the speed of the leader Not a bad career path for someone who entered is the speed of the gang", was often heard at this world with almost every major obstacle directors' meetings. stacked against her. In 1994, eight years into her successful OPRAH WINFREY: MEDIA MOGUL show, Oprah took a bold step that could have AND PERSONAL COACH seriously threatened her ratings. In an era when talk shows were frercely competing to present Oprah Winfrey's Cinderella Story the most controversial topics with people Bom to unwed teenage parents in revealing the most intimate, often disgusting Kosciusko in rural Mississippi, Oprah spent her details of their lives on national T\', Oprah early years in poverty on a farm in extreme decided to leave sensationalism to others. She poverty with her Bible-thumping grandmother. explicitly rejected 'tabloid television' and 24 Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies Klenke

became one of America's most well-known and her own "Family for Better Lives Foundation". effective advocates of a host of social and She is a children's rights activist, and stood educational causes. She pledged to use her show beside President Clinton when he signed into to discuss and focus on meaningful subjects that law a 1994 bill to create a national database of touch the lives of all of her viewers. In 1996, convicted child abusers, which Oprah had Oprah began Oprah's Book Club, an on-air proposed. Oprah Winfrey has already left an reading club designed to get the country excited indelible mark on the face of television. Her about reading. Each of the books selected for legacy has established her as one of the most Oprah's Book Club has become an instant important figures in popular culture. In January bestseller. 2001 she was dubbed Newsweek's "Woman of Oprah's financial savvy is amazing. She the Century." established Harpo Productions in 1988, built a huge production facility in downtown Chicago LEADERSHIP IN CONTEXT and bought her show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" outright from Capital Cities/ABC. She is The three women leaders presented here involved in Oxygen Cable Network, served as exercise leadership in significantly different both star and executive producer for the feature contexts: academia, corporate and the media. film "Beloved" and launched her own magazine, Context, in the most general sense, refers to the "O, the Oprah Magazine", a monthly circular setting in which leadership emerges and is that is a personal growth guide for the new practiced. Klenke (1996) set forth the premise century. Oprah's magazine is credited as being that leadership is largely determined and shaped the most successful magazine launch in recent by the parameters and dynamics context. It is the history. The magazine is another medium contextual superstructure in which leadership is through which Oprah can connect with her enacted and in which specific leadership viewers and provide possibilities for perspectives evolve. Therefore, examining transforming their lives. women's' leadership from a contextual In 1997, she formed Oprah's Angel perspective means isolating the salient features Network, a campaign to encourage viewers to of three contexts in which we find Simmons, make the world a better place. In announcing Kay, and Winfrey. this initiative, Oprah said, "I want you to open Ruth Simmons's world is the world of your hearts and see the world in a different way. academia and education where intellectual I promise this will change your life for the leadership, academic freedom, and collegiality better." Oprah's Angel Network has collected are some of the hallmarks of this context. Mary over 3.5 million dollars to create scholarships Kay Ash led in an entrepreneurial environment and has funded nearly 200 Habitat for Humanity where business acumen, innovation and concern homes. The Network now gives $100,000 every for the customers make all the difference. Prior Monday on the Oprah Winfrey Show to people to foimding her own company, Mary Kay who are using their lives to improve the lives of worked for many years in a formal organization, others. a context that at the time was openly hostile to Oprah did not believe that being poor, women. At the time, the business world black, overweight and female in Mississippi was reverberated with the great male saga of holding her back to pursue her dreams. She has conquests (new markets, new products) and become one of the most powerful people on sports metaphors such as "play hard", "crunch television, a super celebrity who translated her the enemy", and "don't show your trump card". success into a thriving business empire, while The media, which provide the context for maintaining a persona that makes people feel she Oprah Winfrey's leadership, is a setting, which is their own best friend. Being black is part of has romanticized leadership successes and who she is, but it is her spirit that defines her failures. The romanticized conception of total being. Oprah shares her fortune of millions leadership suggests that leaders do or should with numerous charities and friends. The largest have the ability to control and influence the fates recipients are educational institutions, including of the organizations in their charge. Ultimately, her ahna mater, Tennessee State University, and this assumption of control and responsibility Cinderella Stories Of Women Leaders Volume 9, No. 2, 2002 25 engenders a double-edged sword: not only does compliance or threatening them for it imply giving leaders credit for positive noncompliance, transforming leaders move their organizational outcomes, but it also entails followers to transcend their self-interests for the laying blame for negative ones. The romance of sake of the common good. These leaders, leadership (Meindl, Ehrlich, and Dukerich according to Bums, contribute to the 1985), pervasive in Western cultures, suggests motivational maturity and moral development of that people believe that individual leaders are their followers. Ultimately, transforming directly responsible for organizational outcomes. leadership is a moral exercise that is intended to Chen and Meindl (1991) suggested that the raise the standard of human conduct. media develop "constructions of leadership Bass (1995) built on the work of Bums regularly and widely for our consumption . . when he proposed that the transformational These images feed and expand our appetites for leader articulates a realistic vision of the future leadership products, appealing not only to our that can be shared, stimulates subordinates collective commitments to the concept but intellectually, is likely to become charismatic in fixating us in particular on the personas and the eyes of their followers. Followers want to characteristics of the leaders themselves (p. identify with leaders and their visions; they view 522)." Meindl, Ehrlich, and Dukerich (1985) transformational leaders in an idealized manner, concluded that the social construction of often describing them as innovators, visionaries, organizational realities has elevated the concept and exemplars. Followers of transformational of leadership to a lofty status and level of leaders also develop strong feelings for and significance. The imagery, mythology and about their leaders because of the leader's ability stories associated with the concept are evidence to transform them as they accept and intemalize of the mystery and near mysticism with which the key values and beliefs that the leader has leadership has been imbued (p. 78). identified in her vision. This, in tum, allows followers to become more capable of enacting LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES: their own visions. Recent research has shown UNKING PINS BTEWEEN CONTEXTS that charisma is an important component of AND OUTCOMES transformational leadership (Bass, 1985) and that charismatic, transformational, and visionary Beyond differences in context, Simmons, leaders create lasting impacts on their Kay, and Winfrey exemplify three attributes that organizations. play a focal role in current leadership research: Ruth Simmons, Mary Kay Ash and Oprah transforming/transformational leadership, emotional Winfrey, are women leaders who possess the intelligence, and the ability to build trust. elusive quality know as charisma.. According to Weber, charisma includes any authority that Transforming/Transformational derives its legitimacy not fi"om rules, positions Leadership or traditions, but fi"om a "devotion to the specific Transformational leadership is a popular and exceptional sanctify, heroism or exemplary and widely researched topic in the contemporary character of an individual person, or the leadership literature. However, foundation normative patters or order revealed or ordained principles of transformational leadership appear by him (Eisenstadt, 1968, p. 46). The three in the work of Max Weber (1923/63) on women leaders singled out here illustrate several charismatic leadership and Bums (1978) who specific charismatic attributes such as a was the first to specify the distinction between transcendent vision and/or ideology, the abilify transactional leaders who attempt to satisfy to inspire and build confidence, rhetorical ability current needs of followers by focusing attention and a "powerful aura." Their visions are on exchanges and transforming leaders who inspirational, optimistic, and future oriented and attempt to elevate the needs of followers and they articulate a sense of purpose that attracts, promote dramatic change in individuals, groups, motivates and energizes followers to take on and organizations. Instead of, or in addition to, difficult challenges. catering to the self-interests of their followers by making and keeping promises of rewards for 26 Joumal of Leadership and Organizational Studies Klenke

Our three contemporary leaders establish successful performance of dynamic close relationships and connections with their organizations. Moreover, Goleman (1995) followers, be they faculty, students and suggested that emotionally intelligent managers administrators as in the case of Ruth Simmons, may be more successful in developing female cosmetics consumers as in the case of employees, dealing with diversity, and Mary Kay, or TV audiences around the world as coordinating group efforts than managers who in the case of Oprah. They also stand out from lack this quality. other kinds of leaders because of the The relative significance of emotional extraordinary effects they have on their competencies compared to cognitive abilities has followers. They commimicate values (Simmons: been bom out in Boyatzis's classic 1982 study equality in education; Mary Kay: equalify in the of more than two thousand supervisors, middle workforce, and Oprah: personal and spiritual managers and executives of twelve growth) that have ideological consequences for organizations, which foimd that all but two of their followers and transform their needs and the 16 abilities setting the stars apart from the values from self-interests to collective interests. average performers were emotional competencies. Similarly, research by the Center Emotional Inteiligence for Creative Leadership foimd that the primary The concept of emotional intelligence causes of derailment in executives involve gained popularity with the publication of deficits in emotional competence. The three Goleman's (1995) book entitled Emotional primary deficits were difficulty in handling intelligence. It has been defined by Copper and change, not being able to work well in a team, Sawat (1997) as follows: and poor interpersonal relations. No wonder then "emotional intelligence is the ability to that emotional intelligence is finding its way into sense, understand, and effectively apply the companies,^offering employees a way to come to power and acumen of emotions as a source terms with their feelings and to perform better. of human energy, information, connections, For example, a few years ago, American Express and infiuence". implemented a program when faced with an Reduced to its simplest description, apparently insolvable problem - more than two- emotional intelligence (El) can be defined as a thirds of American Express clients were group of mental activities that help people declining to buy life insurance, even though recognize their own feelings and those of others. their financial profiles suggested a need for it. El refers to an array of non-cognitive As it tumed out the problem was not the capabilities, competencies, and skills that product, it was emotional. Clients reported all infiuence a person's ability to succeed in coping kinds of emotional issues involved in buying life with environmental demands and pressures. It is insurance - fear, suspicion, (Schwartz, 2000). also known as "street smarts". To help their financial advisors deal with these The hallmarks of emotional inteUigence are emotions, American Express implemented a self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy and training program that used techniques to make optimism in the face of failure, openness to and their salespeople more aware of their emotions effectiveness in leading change, tmstworthiness and gave them tools to change negative and comfort with ambiguity. Models of emotions into positive ones. Advisors, in short, emotional intelligence are emerging as an became more emotionally competent. Research infiuential fr-amework in the study of leadership. on emotionally intelligent leadership suggests One reason for this penetration is that the that it is a key to creating a working climate that concept of emotional intelligence offers a nurtures employees and encourages them to give language and framework capable of integrating a their best, which, in tum, pays off in terms of wide range of research findings in leadership improved business performance. Research has studies. Studies suggest that emotional also shown that emotional intelligence not only intelligence (and related aspects of practical- distinguishes outstanding leaders but can also be creative intelligence), not IQ or raw brainpower linked to strong performance as shown by the alone, provide the underpinnings for many of the three women leaders profiled here. best decisions effective leaders make and the Cinderella Stories Of Women Leaders Volume 9, No. 2, 2002 27

Emotionally intelligent leaders like In contemporary organizations, trust is Simmons, Kay, and Winfred demonstrate their often equated with social capital and is ability to motivate themselves, persist in the face becoming an increasingly critical and visible of frustration and make lasting commitments to predictor of success. A recent nationwide survey the common good. They are driven to perform by the New York Times indicated that a large beyond expectations and are motivated by a number of American workers feel that trust and deeply embedded desire to achieve. loyalty within their firms are decreasing while Achievement motivation in these women internal competition among coworkers is combines with self-regulation that helps them increasing. Growing evidence confirms that trust overcome frustrations and setbacks. In is a vital resource, a form of "collaborative Simmons, Kay, and Winfrey we also see the capital" that can be used to great advantage. integration of emotions and intellect. As Trust, according to Bennis and Nanus (1997), is exemplary leaders in their respective contexts, the force that keeps leadership rolling because it these three women integrate emotional realities implies accoimtability, predictability, and into their perceptions of the contexts in which reliability. they lead and inject meaning and purpose into As historian Francis Fukuyama has pointed their business strategies. As emotionally out, the freewheeling, ad hoc organizations of intelligent leaders, they effectively manage their the new economy can exist only if their relationships with others and build bonds and members are willing to trust each other. teams as the basis of their collaborative work. Trustworthiness is built and sustained on a They create an atmosphere of openness in the foundation of honest and appropriate disclosure, organizations they lead, deal with difficult issues believability, and credibility. Leaders and straightforward, hsten well and share managers appreciate the value of trust and the information fully. On numerous occasions, cost of mutual suspicion or mistrust. Trust is a Simmons, Kay, and Oprah have shown their time-honored social engagement, which is a outstanding conflict management and defined and shaped, in social circumstances and negotiation skills as they build symbiotic cultural context. relationships between their multiple After a decade of chaos and fesar which constituencies. resulted in massive layoff, mergers and acquisitions, major structural changes in Building Trust organizations, broken covenants, lost loyalty, Few aspects of a relationship are more and distrust, the American workplace is important than trust. Without trust, you cannot establishing trust as an imperative to create work lead. Without trust, people become self- environments that are governed by honesty and protective and controlling. Likewise, when trust mutual respect instead of power and fear. Some is low between leaders and followers, people are of America's most successful companies likely to distort, ignore and disguise facts, ideas including Southwest Airlines, Nordsti'om, and and feelings. A trusting relationship between Wal-Mart are now building their market strength leaders and their constituencies is essential in and profitability on a foundation of trust, order to accomplish extraordinary things. integrity and credibility. As Simmons, Kay, and Therefore, it is not surprising that trust has Oprah illustrate again and again, trust, honesty, become a central competitive issue. Says and integrity are something no single person management guru Tom Peters, "technique and owns but are shared by people. They are not technology are important, but adding trust is the what leaders give to their collaborators but what issue of the decade." Without trust, innovation people must exemplify and practice together. falters and vanishes. According to Manfred Kets Our three women leaders, in their de Vries, professor at INSEAD, "if there is no respective contexts, have built trust among their sense of trust in an organization, if people are constituencies through caring, competence, and preoccupied with protecting their backs . . . commitment by establishing tnistworthy creativity will be one of the first casualties relationships with students and faculty, (Cooper, 1997). consumers, and TV audiences. Their trust comes from character and integrity and their 28 Joumal of Leadership and Organizational Studies Klenke

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