Insights from literature of art

Leadership Insights From Literature of Art

My essay focuses on the leadership insights and qualities of Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird that was published in 1960. Atticus Finch is a widowed attorney and father of two small children. Together with his small family he lives in Maycomb County, Alabama, in a small town in the segregated southern United States of the 1930s. In an attempt to avoid the changing times, the small town southerners of Maycomb County hold onto their fixed attitudes regarding race and class. Told through the eyes of Atticus Finch's six-year-old daughter, Scout, the reader learns about her father, Atticus, who stems from an old Southern family and who in his profession as an attorney in courtroom hopelessly strives to prove the innocence of a black man unjustly accused of rape; and about Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbor who saves Scout and her brother Jem from being killed.

As Heifetz in "Leadership without easy answers" (1984, p. 14) points out there a two notions of leadership. According to Heifetz' opinion, "there are differences in behaviors when people operate with the idea that "leadership means influencing the community follow the leader's vision" versus "leadership means influencing the community to face its problems." In the first instance, influence is the mark of leadership; a leader gets people to accept his own vision and communities address their problems by looking to him. If something goes wrong, the fault is with the leader (Heifetz, 1984, pp. 14f.). In the second instance, progress on problems is the measure of leadership. Leaders mobilize people to face problems, and communities make progression problems because leaders challenge and help them to do so. If something goes wrong, the fault lies with both leaders and the community (Heifetz, 1984, p. 15).

In my opinion, Atticus Finch teaches us the latter kind of model of leadership both, in his small family as a widowed father, and his small town community as an attorney. I think it follows from this style of leadership that leaders are very often regarded as people who "act" instead of people who simply "direct." Atticus runs his family like a judge: he's the one in charge, and has a clear set of rules. Neither of the Finch kids ever calls their father "Dad"; he's always "Atticus." While he definitely puts his foot down when necessary, he also treats his kids with respect. He does not expect his children to respect him just because he sees his role in directing them as their father, but because he acts in a way that deserves respect (see Atticus Finch: Character Analysis, 2011, p. 1). For example, when Scout doesn't want to go back to school, Atticus doesn't just tell her that she has to go and that's that; instead, he listens to Scout's explanation of why she's upset, and tries to make her see her teacher's side of things before coming up with a compromise that makes Scout happier (To kill a mockingbird, 1960, pp. 30ff.). The passage above also suggests that Atticus's courtroom language creeps into the way that he talks to his kids, and so does his judicial concern with fairness. As Scout tells Uncle Jack, "When Jem an' I fuss Atticus doesn't ever just listen to Jem's side of it, he hears mine too" (To kill a mockingbird, 1960, p. 88). ). Scout also tells Miss Maudie, "Atticus don't ever do anything to Jem and me in the