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8/18/2019 Franco Leadership

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Running head: LEADERSHIP EXPRESS: THE LILLIANNA SHOW 1

Leadership Express: The Lillianna Show

Lillianna Franco

ELPS 419

Loyola University Chicago


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LEADERSHIP EXPRESS: THE LILLIANNA SHOW 2

Leadership Express

The Lillianna Show: Episode 1– Leadership

YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/YXR6r8oVEcQ

In order to describe my personal leadership philosophy, how experiences and my

identities have helped shape it, and to consider social justice concerns, I decided to utilize

my communication skills and present these themes through my first episode on The

Lillianna Show. During The Lillianna Show, I decide to share my leadership journey and

along the way explain my philosophy. With every experience I have ever had, I truly

believe my leadership skills have developed. Leadership skills that can be learned are

categorized into technical, human, and conceptual skills (Northouse, 2016). While these

skills are valuable to leadership, I believe the leader I am today comes from my natural

traits. The traits approach consists of how individuals assess how their leadership

characteristics in terms of ability (Northouse, 2016). Some traits that I find I uphold are a

care for others’ emotions, values, ethics, standards, and goals. These traits are highly

connected to the transformational leadership model. Transformational leadership is when

leaders empower others to transform themselves to be able to reach their highest potential

(Northouse, 2016). I believe transformational leadership is my personal leadership

philosophy because I am confident in my leadership, I have strong beliefs and values, I

effectively try to communicate to others, and I encourage action that produces positive

transformational results. Above all, I believe this is my leadership style because of my

past experiences and identities.

As a female, Latina, being raised in a low income household, and living in a

violent and unsafe environment, I have come to realize how my identities affected my


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story and therefore, my experiences. Many people didn’t believe in me. They assumed

that because of my identities, I would never succeed. In particular, many times I was

racially discriminated or received micro aggressions because of my race/ethnicity.

Women of color tend to face many obstacles in the workplace (Sanchez-Hucles & Davis,

2010) but thankfully, many have begun to realize how Latina can contribute to leadership

in our society with core values of the Latino culture, such as personalismo and familismo

(Vasquez & Comas-Díaz, 2007). I could have easily fallen into the trap of believing I

wasn’t good enough because of the negative stereotypes but instead I knew believed in

my core values and what they could contribute to society and what they could help me

become. So, I pursued success in all aspects of my life utilizing my values; I always

challenged myself with goals that, for many, seemed unattainable. Now, as a college

access advocate and a motivational speaker I find that my calling is to use my identities

and successes to be a role model for other individuals like me, and my community. I

spend my time utilizing idealized influence, to act like a role model, and inspirational

motivation, to communicate high expectations to my community (Northouse, 2016).

Growing up, I wish I would have had someone who would have challenged me to change

and fulfill my highest potential.

In order to engage with the audience of The Lillianna Show, I decided to allow

followers on Twitter to hashtag #LillyLeads with leadership questions that they might

have about my leadership philosophy. The first question was, “How has your leadership

changed over the past few months?” And I detailed how the Lillianna Book Club, also

known as our leadership course, allowed me to read about leadership and gain an

understanding about my leadership style and how to name it. Moreover, the course


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allowed me to realize my strengths and engage in dialogue with others about how I could

utilize those strengths to be most effective in my transformational leadership work. I

changed my perspective on leadership and realized how I truly empower others. The

second question was, “How do you envision your leadership philosophy will translate to

practice?” I shared how I believed I would utilize the Social Change Model (SCM) to

bring about meaningful and value based change in the community, with a focus on

working collaboratively with others. The SCM is a way to reconsider leadership with

ideals in purposeful collaboration in order to change the community and society for a

better future (Cilente, 2009). Transformational leadership is highly correlated to the

SCM because it is all about empowering others to change and accomplish more than what

is usually expected. The SCM is a way in which I could take action in social justice

issues.

Finally, the third question I received was, “How does your role of social justice

play out in your leadership approach?” Well, as previously stated, not many people

expected much of me and because I want to bring equity up for underrepresented

minorities, I believe it is my duty to challenge my community to improve and expect

more of themselves. My social justice role plays out in my leadership approach as a

mentor. “Mentoring is an integral part of young adults’ understanding of leadership”

(Campbell et al., p. 587, 2012). If I mentor underrepresented minorities, it is clear that I

would help them gain equity and justice by aiding them in their leadership development

and success. According to the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) many

minorities require mentors to become leaders themselves but Latinos, for example are

less likely to have faculty/professional mentors (Dugan, Kodama, & Correia, 2013). This


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could hold them back from professional leadership development and from obtaining

social mobility. I commit to doing my part to bring about social justice to

underrepresented minorities by using transformational leadership to empower them, in

unjust situations, to become the best they can be and therefore demystify the negative

stereotypes that privileged individuals assume about their identities. I believe that by

sharing our stories, we can work together, to inspire our community to change for the

better and become the leaders they deserve to be in our society.


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References

Campbell, C. M. & Smith, M. & Dugan, J. P. & Komives, S. R.(2012). Mentors and

college student leadership outcomes: The importance of position and process.

The Review of Higher Education 35(4), 595-625.

Cilente, K. (2009). An overview of the social change model of leadership development.

In S. R. Komives, W. Wagner, & Associates (Eds.), Leadership for a better

world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development (pp.

43-78). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Dugan, J. P., Kodama, C., Correia, B., & Associates. (2013). Multi-Institutional Study of

Leadership insight report: Leadership program delivery. College Park, MD:

National Clearinghouse for Leadership Programs.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:

Sage.

Sanchez, J. V. & Davis, D. D. (2010). Women and women of color in leadership.

American Psychologist 65(3), 171-181.

Vasquez, M. & Xomas-Díaz, L. (2007). Feminist leadership among Latinas. In J. L. Chin,

B. Lott, J. K. Rice, & J. Sanchez- Hucles (Eds.), Women in leadership:

Transforming visions and diverse voices. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

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