Teaching Leadership to Union Women: The Use of Stories

Union leadership classes can be the catch-all of labor education. Such programs may include theories about effective leadership, personal assessment of leadership styles, updates on current "hot topics," or skills training. In this article, I describe a different approach to teaching union leadership--one that is based on stories.

Why use stories? Good stories are powerful--people relate to them and remember them. But in addition, part of what union activists who are poised to move into leadership want to know is, "What do leaders do?" and "How can I learn to do that?" The stories used in the class are carefully selected to resemble situations union leaders might face. Participants put themselves in the middle of the story, and develop strategies about the best course of action. The stories teach them about how to exercise leadership--whether confronting management or addressing conflicts within the union.

My goal in this article is to provide enough information about this approach that other labor educators could use this material and/or develop their own story-based programs. In the workshop described here, I use two kinds of stories. First are a set of stories I have selected in advance for the class, which I will refer to as "analytic stories." Second are the stories of the participants themselves. I will address the use of each of these types of stories in turn.

Analytic Stories

Among the analytic stories that I have tried out, the most successful are ones in which I tell the first half of the story, then stop and ask participants what they would do if they were in this situation. To ensure that everyone has a chance to express their ideas, I ask them to discuss the story in small groups and then report back. Afterwards, I tell them the remainder of the story, and in some cases have additional questions for discussion. A sample of this type of story is shown in the box below. It concerns how Madeleine Albright, who as secretary of state was the highest ranking woman in the U.S. government to date, almost did not reach that position.

Analytic Story: Madeleine Albright

--adapted from Sex & Power, by Susan Estrich

This story is about how Madeleine Albright, the highest-ranking woman to date in the U.S. government, came to be secretary of state. She had been active and successful in Democratic politics for quite some time.

Foreign policy, Madeleine's area of expertise, was one part of government in which women were not always welcome. But Madeleine found ways to be included. Among other techniques, she followed a time-honored tradition for powerful women in Washington: she hosted dinners. Hidden in this traditional role was a big advantage: she got the best seat at the table and set the topics of conversations.

In 1988, Madeleine was helping Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis prepare for his debate on foreign policy. The then little-known Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton, was also there to help. Clinton seemed impressed with Madeleine.

And so, when Clinton became president four years later, he found a place for Madeleine in a foreign policy position. She became ambassador to the United Nations. While this is a job that most of us would be thrilled to have, it is sometimes seen as the consolation prize in foreign policy. For one thing, the job is in New York, but foreign policy decisions are made in Washington. But Madeleine was politically savvy, and she made much more of the position than others had. When Secretary of State Warren Christopher announced his retirement, Madeleine seemed a very likely candidate to replace him.

Many of Madeleine's friends were rooting for her. One of them, the author Susan Estrich asked around about what she should do to help. Estrich was a law professor, columnist, and top Democratic party operative. She considered a number of options, such as writing a...