Malala Yousafzai - Nobel Lecture

Being an effective leader involves utilization of many skills, character, and values. Having the capability to communicate a message effectively is an element in leadership that makes the leader successful. According to studies, an effective leader should also be able to adhere to culture, ethics, and values of the society. If a leader is capable of integrating the major functions of management in his or her work, then their leadership will be of impact to the people and the entire community. These functions include leading, planning, organizing, staffing, controlling and communicating. Malala Yousafzai is a leader who has portrayed exceptional leadership skills and values and has helped to improve peoples’ lives. Malala has come up with an initiative to help address the issue of the girl child in accessing education. It is estimated that over 61 million girls from around the world don’t have access to education. Malala Yousafzai is using leadership knowledge to help the problems that girls face in accessing education.

Thesis statement 

This research highlights the leadership traits and approaches that can be learned from the life of Malala Yousafzai.

Research Questions 

Who is Malala Yousafzai?

What made her famous?

What were her accomplishment and achievements?

How does she qualify as a leader?

What ideologies did she stand for?

What were the challenges that she faced as a young leader?

What can we learn and emulate from her leadership life?

Introduction 

Malala Yousafzai is a young Pakistani girl who has received attention from around the globe due to her willingness and zeal in fighting for the rights of the girl; including the right to education. She faced a lot of opposition and threats, and in 2012 she was shot in the head by Taliban gunman. The Taliban had been hunting to kill her because she was defying the communities believes and culture. According to local Pakistani belief, girls are not free to pursue education. Due to her resilience, she survived the gunshot and continued to advocate for girls education.

Mostly her family had been her pillar and source of strength. From her life, it is evident that leadership is learned from early stages in life. By the time she was 12, through the support of her family, Yousafzai had started advocating for the girl Childs education. Typically her family is what shaped her to become a leader. She was raised in a family that valued education despite the threats from Taliban student’s lives horrible. The Taliban had been in control of most of Pakistan and was bombing schools. This made it hard to access education facilities; doing so amounted to risking student lives. Yousafzai stood against these threats when she was just 12 years old and continued going to school (Yousafzai, 2013).

At the tender age of 12, Malala Yousafzai had started to show traits of leadership. She appeared as a great thinker and began to write blog articles about his life and shared them to BBC. Mostly the blogs were about her personal experience with the Taliban and the hardships she was going through in accessing education. At first, this effort did not gather much attention and went unnoticed. Additionally, the blogs did not serve to improve access to education for the girl child because Taliban was still in control (Yousafzai, 2013).. However, she pushed on and was able to speak more about giving the girl child access to education. She would do it whenever, wherever, and to whoever she thought would help improve the access of education. Apparently, Yousafzai appeared as a leader who stood up for what she believed and used that ability to influence others into action. She saw it as a way to motivate those who were influential in the community into pushing for better rights for the girls.

Malala Yousafzai can be termed as a successful leader because she moved beyond the limits, threats, and challenges that she was facing in advocating for the education of girls in Pakistan and gained global recognition. She was nominated for Nobel peace prize when she was still a teenager. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize at the tender age of 17 made her the youngest person in history ever to win such a prize. Moreover, Yousafzai was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011. She also won the Pakistan’s National Youth Peace Prize. In 2013 she was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

Literature Review 

According to literature, an effective leader can communicate with his or her audience. Communicating does not mean being eloquent or a great talk, but it is about having the right message and using the best available channels to communicate it with the audience. The messenger is as important as the message itself (Froschheiser, 2015). Malala Yousafzai was efficient in her activist roles because she settled on what she was experiencing personally; being raised in a locality that denied girls their rights created an opportunity for her to start activism roles. She stood as the message herself because of the hardships she was experiencing in accessing education. She used the aspect of communication to voice her personal experience and the challenges that the girls were going through in Pakistan. Through it, people came to discover how Taliban’s were terrorizing kids and especially children who were pursuing education.

Effective communication is also used by leaders to improve opportunities and gain influence. At the age of 11 years, Malala Yousafzai discovered her blogging talent and used it to air her grievances. She blogged for BBC, and this made it gain influence among her audience (Hybels, 2014). Leaders should utilize the available resources to improve their lives, careers and those of those around them. Malala used the BBC platform to lobby for girls rights. She also had the chance to address the UN on educating the girl child. On her 18th birthday, she was recognized by being made the Malala day. She used the opportunity to continue advocating for the global education she did it by opening a school in Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon.

Accorsin to Nancarrow et al ( 2013) leaders who are successful can utilize communication in addressing touching issues. Great leaders from around the world know how to manage their interactions with people. Effective leaders stand out as effective communicators; they talk about their experiences to push on ideas. They are effective in communication by speaking to the emotions and the aspirations of the audience. For instance, Malala Yousafzai used the incident in which she was attacked by a gunman to address the UN and convince the world on why they need to push for education of the girl child.

Though leadership can be learned, some people are naturally born to lead others they evolve to become influential leaders as they grow. For instance, Malala started activism roles when she was barely 12 years old. As a young leader, she did not give up despite the threats she was facing from the Taliban. She was shot in the head for advocating for girls education (Harper, 2015).

Leaders are practical on what they communicate and the accompanying actions. Leadership skills and knowledge can only be valuable if it is applicable in real life and is used to improve life or solve problems. Therefore effective leaders have great communication capabilities and also a good sense of situational and contextual awareness (Ryder, 2015). This is done by being a good listener and having good observation ability. A leader should be able to understand their teams, communities, audience. They will need to understand aspects such as moods, expectations, dynamics, attitudes, values, and concerns. Being able to understand the environment in which they are working in would allow them to push or implement their message. When the communication is done properly, there will be the solution to the customer needs and expectation (Doeden, 2014).

Leaders should use communication tools and platforms to win trust from their audience. Such leaders would be ready to invest their time and go ahead to take risks doing it. Leaders would not achieve trust by being demanding, but they would do so by building a good reputation and being a person of integrity. According to literature some of the ways a leader can earn trust includes by right acting, thinking and decision making. If people lose trust on a leader, the leadership ceases to be effective.

People are the foundation of great leadership; to be an effective leader, one must invest in people. A good leader does that by utilizing the available resources to improve people lives. They should also to use the available tools and resources to help the community, team or audience in overcoming unfavorable situations. Leadership can become transformative if it if it has the capability of changing lives. Using junior people and trusting them with lead roles can be a way of achieving transformative leadership.

Using technology to deliver on leadership duties and roles should be a consideration for every leader who wants to gain influence. Technology has altered environment by making access to inflammation to be more achievable. Using technology leaders can improve their training and learn new skills. This would make the leaders succeed in coming with innovative ideas that can improve their organizations. Information is one of the most important that can be used to improve organizations according to studies information has an organizations power, and its value increases the more it is shred. Similarly, the transformational power of information increases when it is shared. It would help to improve culture and foster collaboration among people.

How Malala Yousafzai Succeed As a Leader 

Malala Yousafzai succeeded as a leader because she was focused on big issues that were affecting her society. This means that her leadership approach was focused on issues of significance to the entire community. Some of the issues that she focused on addressing were giving girls their right and especially the right to education. The girls in Pakistan and around the world were facing hardships because of denial of their rights; this made her be recognized. The issues were affecting the society and were threatening the society’s future. Therefore concentrating on the such a big issue made her gain influence in her country and the world.

Yousafzai demonstrated leadership that was based on values and ethics. Evidently, Yousafzai was pushing for the provision of rights for the girls as a way of improving their rights. She saw it as unethical to deny the girls their rights. She had a clear vision and mission on the same. She was persistent in pushing for the promotion of girl’s education though she was faced with death threats (Yousafzai, 2013).

Consistency is a trait that makes a leader to grow deep on the ideologies and methods they want to implement in their communities or organizations. In the Yousafzai story, she stated to advocate for the education of the girl child since she was 12 years old. She did not deviate. When she moved to England for treatment after a gun attack, she still held to her course. She still used all the avenues available to push for the promotion of the girl education in warring countries like Syria and Pakistan. With the help of her father, she was able to start the Malala fund that would help local leaders and activists who would promote education provision.

Leaders who are innovative are bound to face resistance. Yousafzai was determined in advocating for a new way of doing things. She was regular, committed and ready to make sacrifices in order to push for the education of girls in her community and the entire country. By doing so, Malala Yousafzai inspired her local communities, family, and other leaders into seeing new potential for the girls.

Malala Yousafzai used her personal experience to growth other and improved their potential. She used her struggles, challenges, and aspirations to push for the rights of young girls and women. She named her book “I am Malala” this makes the communication and the leadership approach to me intrapersonal and able to elicit emotions (Yousafzai, 2013). When leaders identify their story and use it in the delivery of their roles and responsibilities they will be more effective. The memories of the past experiences can also be useful in being detailed in undertakings. The memories also help in achieving charismatic leadership.

Malala succeeded as leaders because she was real and practice on the ideas that she was presenting. Though she gained a word stage, she stuck to her mission and objective of advocating or the education of girls. She did not consider herself as the greatest advocate of education, but she remained grounded on pushing for the girl’s right. She presented herself as the message about educating the girl child. Though she was full of humor, candor and youthful charm, this did not distract her in advocating for girl’s rights. She was honest and direct on what she wanted. This made her authentic a people found it natural to trust her (Yousafzai, 2013).

When people accomplish great things their lives or careers, they stop being genuine and they divert from their course. They start living manufactured personas, and they disconnect from the initial people who helped them. Malala Yousafzai did not change when she won many awards and accolades. She won the Nobel Peace Prize among other awards and still did not stop pushing for the rights of girls and young woman. Great leaders should remain to be compelling, persuasive, and inspiration to people around them.

Malala Yousafzai was an excellent communicator, listener, and thinker. She once met with Syrian refugees who had been a victim of fighting and skirmishes. She listened to their stories and needs. She learned that there was a dire need for schools in the area. The refugees also described a need for schools where they can learn vocational skills. She went back to her country an established Malala funds to help set up new schools for the kids in refugee camps. She opened a school for them, and it is currently helping to educate hundreds of Syrian teenage girls. Therefore a good leader should be able to apply critical thinking to solve people needs and problems.

Other qualities that are evident in the Malala Yousafzai leadership style include being courageous, having great communication and social skills. Malala was shot by a gunman when she was 12 years. This did not make her lose the desire to pursue education and activism. She knew she had to push harder for reforms in her community. She learned the aspect of communication and used it to blog and address influential people and organizations that can help promote education (Newman, 2014).

Malala Yousafzai was also an intuitive leader who could assess the community and come up with solutions for the needs they were facing. For instance, she spent time visiting refugee camps to assess ho education can be achieved in such an environment. she would then come up with striates to raise money to support education programs. Therefore Malala Yousafzai can be said to be a leader shows ability takes initiative and is also proactive (Hackman, & Johnson, 2013).

A leader should be able to treat evil with kindness. Malala though she became influential she did not show any intent to avenge her attackers. in fact she was intentional on showing kindness to them. When she spoke to the UN, she asked foot promotion of education and making it accessible to every child. She desired that education is made available, even to the sons and daughters of the Taliban. Malala was of the belief that living in anger and hatred won’t help in her roles. An effective leader should kind and free from hatred.

Malala was successful in achieving servant leadership because she showed integrity and initiative in her leadership. Integrity is a charter that helps leaders to remain real to their course, mission, goals, and objectives. Failing to be of integrity would also mean that the leader is not accountable and transparent in their activities. Being initiative would mean the one leader by example (Myatt, 2012). He or she should be at the front in coming with initiatives that would the things running. Servant leadership goes beyond personal growth and progress and includes the larger community and organization. Therefore it can be used to promote team work and collaboration.

Malala Yousafzai showed to have leadership power to solve the crisis. She learned of hoe schools were being burned and students terrorized (Madsen, & Ngunjiri, 2015). She went ahead to raise funds set up new schools and help kids get access to education. She also started schools for kids in refugee camps. her career as an activist largely grew when she was facing life threats from the Taliban. Therefore Yousafzai was successful in crisis leadership.

Malala Yousafzai was an effective leader because she was focused and prioritized on what she wanted to do. She was able to articulate what she wanted to achieve and spent most of her life working towards that. According to principles of leadership, a good leader should be able to prioritize on the posed and goal of the project. It is also good to prioritize on aspects that help in achieving goals such as communication. in the Malala case, communication is an element that helped her to gain influence and become successful in her activist role.

Recommendations 

Leaders should learn from Malala Yousafzai in standing against bad cultures, discrimination, and segregation to push for new ways of doing things. They should also endeavor to be strategic and able to priorities on significant issues that affect the organization and the society.

Leaders should be able to stand against extremism and terrorism to save lives and ensure progress of the community.

It is also recommendable that leaders learn important virtues like integrity, courage, being proactive and initiative to deliver on people needs and expectations.

Conclusion 

The Malala Yousafzai life is a good reference of successful leadership. She is a young lady who has accomplished a lot through activism and advocacy. People can learn many aspects so f leadership from her life. Future research should be done on how leadership can be used to promote social lives of vulnerable communities.

References 

Doeden, M. (2014).  Malala Yousafzai: Shot by the Taliban, Still Fighting for Equal Education . Lerner Publications.

Froschheiser, L. (2015). Communication: The most important key to leadership success.  Reliable Plant. Retrieved on ,  4 (04), 2015.

Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2013).  Leadership: A communication perspective . Waveland Press.

Harper, C. (2015). First Opinion: Changing Our World, One Individual at a Time. First Opinions, Second Reactions, 8(2), 9.

Hybels, S. (2014).  Communicating effectively . McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Madsen, S. R., & Ngunjiri, F. W. (2015). Women as Global Leaders. European Business Review.

Myatt, M. (2012). 10 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders.

Nancarrow, S. A., Booth, A., Ariss, S., Smith, T., Enderby, P., & Roots, A. (2013). Ten principles of good interdisciplinary team work. Human resources for Health, 11(1), 19.

Newman, J. (2014). Yousafzai, Malala with McCormick, Patricia: Malala: The Girl who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World.  School Librarian ,  62 (4), 252-253.

Pamungkas, P. A. (2015). Inequality of Education for Girls Reflected in Malala Yousafzai & Christina Lamb's I am Malala (2013) Memoir: A Feminist Approach (Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta).

Ryder, P. M. (2015). Beyond critique: Global activism and the case of malala yousafzai.  Literacy in Composition Studies ,  3 (1), 175-187.

Yousafzai, M. (2013). I am Malala: The girl who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban. Hachette UK.