Recently,
I came across a docu-series, The Michael Vick
Project. As I watched each episode, I reflected on
Michael Vick’s life and how it exemplified several of the leadership theories
covered in this week’s readings. Michael
Vick started his career as a student and football player at Virginia Tech and appeared to be soaring when he was
drafted into the NFL to play for the Atlanta Falcons in 2001. No one could imagine six short years later,
Vick would experience his greatest fall from fame, when he was indicted for dogfighting. Vick’s professional career could have been
over after serving 23 months in a federal prison but instead he made it his
mission “to get it all back, not the money or fame but to restore his family’s
good name.”
So What?
As
I watched the series, I realized how Vick had worked to transform his life into
being an authentic leader. His prison sentence was a critical life event
that provided an opportunity for Vick to change his life course. Vick opens up his docu-series desiring to be
a better person, to acknowledge his wrong doings and then to work to ensure
others did not follow down his path.
This aligns with how authentic leadership challenges leaders - “to do
the right thing, to be honest with themselves and others and to work for the
common good” (p. 270). In order to meet
these goals, he publicly accepted responsibility for harming animals, he then
began to work with the NAACP, the Humane Society and the City of Philadelphia to speak to
young people.
A
second leadership example I recognized was Ladkin &
Taylor’s
(2010) point on how authentic leaders are not focused on impression management. Naveena Prakasam (2012) explains
“impression management encompasses social interactions where an individual
modifies their behavior in order to evoke certain responses from the audience.” Some people would argue that Vick only
modified his behavior because he was caught.
However throughout the docu-series, he speaks about his desire to get
out of the business and not understanding his own appeal to the criminal
behavior. He also talks about how
getting caught and going to prison was the wake-up call he needed, it was his
critical life event. Some leaders would
shape and spin negative publicity. Vick
used it as a teachable moment and reminder to make better choices.
Now What?
Vick’s
life is the basis of the five characteristics of authentic leadership: Purpose, Values, Relationships,
Self-Discipline and Heart. He incorporates
each of these characteristics into the work he does. Michael Vick and his story is a reminder that
when you take responsibility for your action, there is redemption. When we are giving a second chance, it is our
responsibility to lead authentically. As
Northouse writes authentic leadership develops
over a lifetime!
