Little Update: 9 Leadership Lessons From “Little Women” and Take The Lead
The four March sisters in “Little Women” uphold the 9 Leadership Power Tools from Take The Lead.
Louisa May Alcott is so 2020. At least her 1868 novel, “Little Women” in the hands of film director Greta Gerwig is.
It’s a new feminist film far ahead of its time with lessons in leadership, ambition, motherhood, work and sisterhood that all women can use right about now. The lessons gathered from the latest iteration of the film also neatly coincide with the 9 Leadership Power Tools created by Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead.
“@LittleWomen is a new #feminist film far ahead of its time with lessons in ambition and sisterhood that all women can use, and brimming with #LeadershipTips.”
Just so you know, “Little Women” is doing fine at the box office, “taking in $60 million to date domestically and $80.4 million globally,” according to The Hollywood Reporter, with some awards nominations, but it is also surprisingly brimming with a treasure of currently applicable leadership tips.
Critics are seizing on this modern little moment.
Vogue compares the movie to “Sex and The City,” as “each have been trivialized at times, diminished as merely girls’ stuff (meanwhile, men have actively, even if covertly, consumed them). But they each have become rites of passage for the way they make women feel seen and heard, inviting us to see a little bit of ourselves in popular characters. That was a radically new experience in Little Women’s era and, even a century later, felt affirming for the Sex and the City generation of women who wanted sexual freedom, and moved to New York with big dreams.”
Caitlin Flanagan writes in The Atlantic, “The heart of the movie, though, is the private lives of the March girls, who are making a home together and following their natural talents in writing and acting in plays and painting and taking care of small children. Their STEM dreams are not being thwarted. Jo is not up in the attic making a rocket ship that the stupid patriarchy will ignore.”
The March sister brawls, the hidden anger of matriarch Marmee March, all of the emotions and vulnerabilities feel timeless and real and very 21st century.
“The #March sister brawls, the hidden anger of Marmee March, all of the emotions and vulnerabilities feel timeless, real and very 21st century. #LittleWomen”
Brandon Tensley writes in CNN, “But the honest exploration of fury is just one element that makes Gerwig's reimagining of ‘Little Women’ stand out in 2019. Really, it's the fact that the movie's characters possess such a rich combination of things — ambition, wit, affection, flaws — that gives it potency.”
He adds, “Coming at the close of a year in which women, in newly visible ways, have been portrayed one-dimensionally, ‘Little Women’ feels like a corrective in how it paints in complex shades, its Victorian-era feminist angst containing meaningful lessons for the world today.”
New Yorker reports, “The story that Gerwig’s film wants us to own—the story that so many redemptive, individualist readings of the novel push us toward—is the one where there are survivors, singular women who somehow escape.”
The BBC reports, “Greta Gerwig’s wonderous adaptation cuts through the novel’s moralistic surface to mine the themes beneath: feminism, creativity, independence and individuality.”
The nine lessons from the characters in “Little Women” add up to an updated framing of how women operate within the worlds of family, work, love and dreams. They also neatly coincide with the 9 Leadership Power Tools at Take The Lead.
1. Jo on the meaning of life for women: “Women, they have minds, and they have souls, as well as just hearts. And they've got ambition, and they've got talent, as well as just beauty. And I'm so sick of people saying that love is just all a woman is fit for. I'm so sick of it." This is akin to Leadership Power Tool # 1: Know your history. Feldt writes that if you do this, “You can create the future of your choice.”
2. From Meg March comes this gem, "Just because my dreams are different than yours doesn't mean they're unimportant." Meg spills that one out and doesn’t that belong on a t-shirt? It’s also reminiscent of Leadership Power Tool #2: Define your own terms first, before anyone else does. Feldt writes, “Whoever sets the terms of the debate usually wins it. By redefining power not as ‘Power-Over,’ but as ‘Power-To,’ we shift from a culture of oppression to a culture of positive intention to make things better for everyone. ‘Power-To’ is leadership.”
“From Meg March comes this gem, “Just because my dreams are different than yours doesn’t mean they’re unimportant.” #RedefinePower #PowerTool2”
3. Negotiate like Jo. The ambitious writer daughter, Jo demands the newspaper publisher pay her more and also firmly negotiates her book deal with the publisher “It’s up to me to keep my family afloat,” she says. This one is parallel to Leadership Power Tool #3, “Use what you’ve got.” Feldt writes, “What you need is almost always there, if you can only see it and have the courage to use it. Remember, power unused is power useless.”
“Negotiate like #JoMarch. This one is parallel to Leadership Power Tool #3, “Use what you’ve got.” #PowerTool #LeadershipAdvice”
4. Jo, who defies tradition and moves to New York to pursue her career as a writer and later opens a school for boys and girls, says, “I know what it means to feel less than. No one makes their own way, least of all a woman.” This lines up with Leadership Power Tool #4, “Embrace Controversy. Felt writes, “It gives you a platform. It nudges you to clarity. It is a teacher, a source of strength, and your friend, especially if you are trying to make change.”
5. Amy March has her own intentions of creating a meaningful life. Here she is on ambition: “I want to be great or nothing.” This coincides with Leadership Power Tool #5, Carpe the chaos. Feldt writes, “Change creates chaos. Today’s changing gender roles and economic turbulence may feel chaotic and confusing. But chaos also means boundaries become more fluid. That’s when people are open to new ways of thinking, to innovation, and to new roles for women. Carpe the Chaos, for in chaos is opportunity.”
“#AmyMarch says on ambition: “I want to be great or nothing.” This coincides with Leadership Power Tool #5, Carpe the chaos. #LittleWomen”
6. A lot has been written about the costumes in this version of “Little Women.” Jo wears ties and vests mimicking menswear at the time. Costume designer for the film Jacqueline Durran tells In Style: “There was definitely a feeling that she dresses to conform more to what society would want, but at the same time, she can't give up the boyish quality to her clothes. The hat she chooses to wear is a woman's version of a man’s hat. She's appropriated [the look of the men in the office], taking the space that she felt she didn’t own at the beginning of the movie.” This reflects Leadership Power Tool #6, Wear the shirt of your convictions. Feldt writes, “What are your core values? What’s your vision of what should happen? How can you make it happen? Go stand in your power and walk with intention to make it so.”
“#JoMarch wears ties and vests mimicking menswear at the time. This reflects Leadership Power Tool #6, Wear the shirt of your convictions. ”
7. Amy on ambition: “I want to be great or nothing.” This is what Leadership Power Tool #7 is about, Take Action: Create a Movement. Feldt writes, “Things don’t just happen; people make them happen in a systematic way, and you can change systems. Apply the three movement-building principles of Sister Courage (be a sister, act with courage, put them together to create a PLAN) and you will realize your vision at work, at home, or in public life.”
8. Meg March on ambition: “I try to be contented, but it’s hard.” This is echoed in Leadership Power Tool #8: Employ every medium. Feldt writes, “Use personal, social, and traditional media every step of the way. Use the medium of your own voice. And think of each of the power tools as a medium to be pressed into the service of your “Power-To”.”
“Meg March on ambition: “I try to be contented, but it’s hard.” This is echoed in Leadership Power Tool #8 : “Use the medium of your own voice,” as devised by @GloriaFeldt. ”
9. The film and the original book tell the story of Jo March crafting the story of her sisters, defying convention and publishing a novel for, by and about women. This is precisely Leadership Power Tool #9, Tell your story. Feldt writes, “Your story is your truth; your truth is your power. Telling your story authentically helps you lead (not follow) your dreams and have an unlimited life.”
“@LittleWomen tells the story of Jo March defying convention and publishing a novel for, by and about women. This is precisely #Leadership Power Tool # 9, Tell your story.”
It’s impossible to not mention a favorite line from the movie that can be the mantra of every female leader working to be an ally with all female leaders. “Life is too short to be angry with one’s sisters.”
