I found the podcast and the reading super interesting, especially considering all of the ties between popular culture and leadership. I knew the Robin Hood story was old but I had no idea it was that old or had such an effective and extensive history. Since humans are primarily social creatures it makes you wonder if Storytelling was the main form of leadership in times before detailed history recording, mass media, or fast forms of communication. In my Leadership 102 class we talked a lot about oral traditions and how humans have evolved to depend on the information that they learn from others.
Furthermore, I found this podcast super interesting and important because it ties directly to the topic of my semester research paper for this class. My main argument is how music and popular culture in general is a valid and effective form of leadership that can provide a lasting impact and influence on our culture as a whole. Not only is it exciting that I can now cite Dr. Bezio in my research paper, but now I know that it falls under the category of storytelling as leadership. Lastly, I think it is critical to realize what Dr. Bezio points out in the podcast, that storytelling directly ties to our unit on the media and how representation is a reflection of how our society is or how it should be. By creating widespread narratives about injustices in society or an ideal world that would solve people’s problems, we give people the inspiration to create change. I have always found that to be an incredible aspect of leadership: that the actions of ordinary people, like the original storytellers of Robin Hood, can create widespread positive change.
I really like the points you made here! I definitely agree with what you said about ordinary people creating change through stories because it really shows how much power- and leadership- small people have. It doesn’t take a powerful and important leader to make change and I think that is important.
We definitely need to normalize storytelling as the centerpiece of leadership. I feel that storytelling has become something that groups do not expect from leaders as they tend to draw upon emotions that motivate an audience to act in a particular way. To that end, storytelling isn’t appended to leadership if leaders are supposed to be approachable but not too sensitive to come across as weak and ineffective.
I really like your comment saying that representation is a reflection of how our society is or how it should be. I touched on in my paper how the Grimm Brothers used their stories to reflect the societal expectations of the time and I think it is important to see how many authors and even directors do this which shows the power of fairytales for example in teaching children along with the growth of implicit biases. But as you said it does show the power that anyone can have in popular culture in order to bring attention to larger issues like racial injustice.