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Running Head: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

Leadership and Management


[Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]

Leadership and Management

Leadership and Management

Introduction
The report is based on a movie Kinky Boots and the character Lola who has played a
strong and inspirational role, with great lessons for the people in our society. As a student, it is a
good movie to watch and learn many things from the character Lola. The story of the movie
revolves around the character Charlie Price, who was forced to step in and save his familys
shoe factory, due to the sudden death of his father in Northern England. Charlie was helpless and
has no idea how to save his company from bankruptcy. He found an unexpected inspiration in
the form of Lola, a fabulous drag performer. Lola helps Charlie discover that there are cross
dressers who demand high heeled boots and there is an opportunity to serve this niche market
segment. The movie shows how an unsuccessful business can be transformed into a successful
business. How leaders should play its role, what kind of approach is required to make a
difference. The movie has many lessons on leadership, personality, & behavior for business
school students. How an effective leadership of Lola brought changes in the life of Charlie. It all
became possible through acceptance of diversity, commitment and bringing new ideas to the
table, an important message for the business owners of today. The report will focus on the
character Lola in relation with the class lectures.

Discussion
Identification & Application

Leadership and Management

Kinky Boots is a great inspirational movie, with strong lessons for business leaders and
entrepreneurs. The theme of the movie is very deep with a message for the society to change its
perception & viewpoint on people it perceives as being different. The character Lola has played a
strong role in conveying this message. The personality traits displayed by Lola is
Agreeableness, Openness to experience & Extraversion. Agreeable people are kind,
generous, helpful etc. (Luo et. Al, p.599-608) and value getting along with each other. Lola has
always been drawn to the most exciting, the most daring, the most sexy (Charlie; 01:35:29).
Lola appeared as an Angel to help Charlie save his factory from bankruptcy. Lola was a
fighter as she took on the world while living his life as a woman. The people who display this
trait are more likely to be called transformational. They have the ability to change the scenario
and transform the situation. They are concerned with emotions and values and ended up
motivating others. Lola has motivated Charlie Price to fight and save the company. Lola was
open to experience as well. These people are the source of unusual ideas, emotion, imagination
and experience. They respect others feeling and are more likely to hold unconventional beliefs as
Lola did by becoming a woman. Lola was the source of unusual idea and he presented the
unusual idea of making thigh high boots for women who are actually men. Lola: do you think
there is a niche market for proper good (Lola; 00:26:33)
The leadership trait displayed by Charlie was openness to experience. People who are
open to experience are sensitive in nature, they are curious and take care of people around them.
They respect others feelings and give importance to the little things in life. When Charlie was
given the responsibility of saving his fathers factory, he wanted to close it down but also wanted
to save the job of his factory workers. He cares for the people who were working in the factory

Leadership and Management

and the people around him. Charlie was not resistant about change. He appreciated the change
and supported the idea of making high heeled boots. Apart from this there were many traits that
Charlie and Lola have in common. They both have the characteristics of charismatic and
transformational leaders. You really must agree together we are beautiful (Lola & Charlie;
00:29:48).
Leadership & Management Approaches

Charismatic Leader
The character of Lola is the example of the charismatic leadership in the movie Kinky
Boots. A charismatic leader has the capability to conserve and behave in ways that motivate and
inspires others (Smith et.al, 1947). Some of the famous charismatic leaders include Nelson
Mandela, Winston Churchill etc. A charismatic leader influence by changing the game as Lola
did in the movie. Lola saved the factory from bankruptcy and changed the game for Charlie by
making a different product for niche market. Lola has faced hardships in life but never let his
inspiration die. Lola inspired others by his actions and commitment. The movie Kinky Boots is
an inspirational movie with great lessons for life and has helped me understand the leadership
theories.

Personal Freedom and Self Expression


The character Lola played a strong role in the movie Kinky Boots. Lola has many
things to teach us. He gave us good lessons on personal freedom and self expression. Lessons to
learn from the character of Lola are;

Pursue the truth

Leadership and Management

Learn something new


Accept yourself and youll accept others too
Spread the love and let love shine
Let pride be your guide
You can change the world when you change your mind

Individuality
The movie Kinky Boots is about change, discovering your passion, surpassing
stereotypes and conquering prejudice. It has lessons for everyone especially for those who want
to succeed in life and live with freedom. The themes and events are familiar and undoubtedly
still real issues of our society or our classroom and we need to learn the message and try to get
rid of this social evil. We should accept the people the way they are and try to do good things in
life (Swickert,p.17-217). The movie gives us the lesson that we should be confident no matter
what the situation is and we should be confident about our aspirations. We all should work
together to eliminate injustice from our society. We should treat every other person with an open
heart and with the positive attitude, regardless of where he/she belongs. Also, individuality needs
to be encouraged and it all starts in the classroom. In order to make our society a better place,
lessons of individuality must be given to the students and they should be taught to follow their
own path no matter what others think they should be confident about their selves, their abilities
and if they learn it theyll pass the message to the upcoming generation. The character of Lola is
that one example that showed us how to get it done and its not hard once you start believing in
yourself.
If we look at all of the influential people in the world, many of them were probably
unique individuals when they were younger. Example: Mark Zuckerberg, Lady Gaga etc. They
were not what they are today. Once they started believing in their selves they changed their lives.

Leadership and Management

There are many great things about being yourself and true to your identity is that youll be loved
and admired by the people, who like you for who you are, not for whom you are trying to be.
What we can learn from the movie is that the only person we have to worry about impressing is
ourselves. Celebrate you to elevate you, when you struggle to stand well take a helping hand!
(Charlie & Company).

Diversity and Acceptance


The movie presents drag queens as the musicals spiritual leader. These colorful drag
queens Lola and her Angels meet their opposites, Charlie and his employees small town
traditionalists. Every member has a specific individuality, portrayed through their characters to
display the theme of diversity. Diversity and acceptance has provided solutions in the movie. The
two opposites combined together to make a difference. They worked together to run the factory
and made a new product to serve the niche market. Acceptance does not happen instantly and
people associated with it have a hard time in the beginning and that is what they have shown in
the movie Kinky Boots. Lolas angels and Charlies employees have a hard time in the start but
once they started accepting each other, things became simple for them and they succeeded in the
end. This also gives us that lesson of tolerance and understanding people regardless of their
inabilities and discrimination. The movie gave us many important lessons that we can apply
around ourselves, to our classrooms, playgrounds and at every aspect of students life.

Prejudices & Perception


Kinky boots also contains a very important lesson about perception. We have heard many
times before that perception is reality. How people perceives you may be different from the

Leadership and Management

actual reality (Bernstein, p.123-124). Perception play an important role in our life and sometime
it happens that we give off the wrong impression due to any bad circumstances and other
believes what they see. So as a leader it is very important to be very careful about what you are
doing and how you are presenting yourself to others. People follow their leader and try to copy
them, their actions, their way of walking, eating & handling the situations etc. A leader is role
model for people (Yantis, p 7-15). In our society we have seen many people who have a biased
perception about people or different things in life. This movie has taught a good lesson to clear
our minds for them. One should learn to pass prejudices and accept the people as they are. As
Wayne W. Dyer, a famous author and motivational speaker once said Change the way you look
at things and the things you look at change. Once someone forms a certain impression of you it
becomes very hard to change that. Lola is that one character who was different from others in the
movie. People had wrong perceptions about Lola as he was different in looks and style. This
different looking personality came to rescue Charlies factory with ideas for niche product line.
Leadership & Business
In todays world it is very important to learn, how to survive in a competitive
environment. How a change in attitude can make things easy in life. A good leader is the one
who respects its employees or co-workers, respect their commitment and efforts (Barrett, p.51).
He must be loyal to them and appreciates their work and ideas for the betterment of the company.
Business environment is continuously changing and in order to compete, one should bring
changes in the company according to the changes in the environment. As we have seen in the
movie they decided change the product Change the Product (Eric/Derek; 00:20:25). If the
company is not growing, change the product or bring innovation in it, try different things and
always remain in search of a good opportunity. Opportunities are everywhere he should assess it

Leadership and Management

and make necessary adjustments for it. A good leader does not try to change the world but he
changes himself and influences others by his efforts and hard work. Leader built partnerships,
motivates them and respects their commitments. A leader always learn from his mistakes and
never afraid to take the risk (Scouller, p34-35). Business is all about taking risk. It is the
responsibility of the leader to set goals, aim high and motivates others to reach that goal. A leader
is the game changer he supports change and change for good (Kotter et.al, p. n.d.). There are
many lessons for us to learn from the characters of Lola and Charlie. Respect the little things
in life as it makes a difference. Good leaders respect and care their people or people who are
associated with them and always supports good attitude and commitment.

Partnerships
This movie also gave us the lesson of partnership. Life is full of challenges and a person
cannot beat that all alone. In order to move in this fast paced competitive world, partnerships
play an important role. There are many great companies we see today are the result of great
partnerships. The same thing we have witnessed in the movie. Price & son, a shoe factory in
Northern England was well on its way of bankruptcy. The company was going down due to
cheap product makers in the market until Charlie Price and Lola, two unexpectedly different
individuals combined to save the company. Once they meet, they developed a new idea and
saved the company by serving a niche market segment.

Conclusion
Building a successful company today and doing business is a lot
different than it was in past years. Leadership is the most important part of

Leadership and Management

job in todays world. In a constantly changing business environment, we


cannot model our self on leadership archetypes of the past, we need to learn
new things if life in order to meet the challenges of todays workplace. The
traits the 21st century leader needs to succeed are not changed much but
with some great innovations they are more useful and effective. As we have
seen in the movie. The movie was given the title of best business movie of
the year due to its powerful lesson and story. The movie has inspired many
minds and has changed the thinking of many people. There will be many
situations in life when well be facing only options, do or die but do we will
thats what we should learn from Charlie. Lola has motivated others has that
charisma in him which helped him win in tough situations. The character of
Lola has told us many lessons and the greatest of all is being who you are.
You are unique and you can do anything if you want to. Trust yourself and
change your mind for others. We should not judge the people by their faces.
There is an English idiom for it Dont judge a book by its cover. There are
also many great lessons of diversity and acceptance in the movie which are
very important for our society.
The movie gave us the lesson that a good leader is never afraid of
challenges (Peterson, p. n.d). Challenges are open in nature, they may come
in any shape or size, in any form and it may be physical in nature as we have
seen in the movie. Our views of the world differ in situations and accepting
someone who is not like you is more than a challenge. People are different
and one should treat others the way he treat himself. Life is full of challenges

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and there are times in life when you ask what else can you do? Ask questions
and search for answers. Life is not that hard as we think, there is always a
solution for every problem. Think wise, think nice. Charlie was on the brink of
giving up his fathers factory and his defeatist attitude was challenged by
Lola. Lola challenged him to try something new and challenged him to think
beyond level. Charlie challenged the status quo and took the risk of making a
thigh high boots for women who are men. This not only helped Charlie saved
the factory but also many lives and minds are changed. His act erased
deeply held prejudices and convictions from the mind of people. Rising to a
challenge often requires risk and some strong actions but once its done it
leaves to a desired conclusion. In the end its all leadership and management
what we need to move on and conquer the world.

Leadership and Management

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References

Barrett, R. (2003) Vocational Business: Training, Developing and Motivating People - Business
& Economics - Page 51.
Bernstein, Douglas A. (2010). Essentials of Psychology. Cengage Learning. pp. 123124.
Kotter, John P. & Dan S. Cohen. (2002). The Heart of Change. Boston: Harvard Business School
Publishing
Luo X, Kranzler HR, Zuo L, Wang S, Gelernter J. (2007) Personality Traits of Agreeableness and
Extraversion are Associated with ADH4 VariationBiol Psychiatry. Mar 1;61(5):599608.
Epub 2006 Oct 25.
Peterson & Van Fleet (2008). A tale of two situations: An empirical study of behavior by not-forprofit managerial leaders.
Scouller, J. (2011). The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence,
Knowhow and Skill. Cirencester: Management Books pp. 34-35.
Smith, Brien N., Ray V. Montagno, and Tatiana N. Kuzmenko. (2004) "Transformational and
servant leadership: Content and contextual comparisons." Journal of Leadership &
Organizational Studies 10.4: 80-91.
Swickert, Rhonda; Hittner, James B.; Kitos, Nicole; Cox-Fuenzalida, Luz-Eugenia (2004).
"Direct or indirect, that is the question: A re-evaluation of extraversion's influence on
self-esteem". Personality and Individual Differences 36 (1): 20717.

Leadership and Management


Yantis, Steven (2001). Visual perception: essential readings. Psychology Press. p. 7-15

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