Leslie Knope Leadership

715 Words2 Pages

Without great leaders in this world, human progress would have reached a standstill many years ago. Gandhi peacefully led India to civil independence from Britain, Alice Paul bravely fought for women’s suffrage, Steve Jobs revolutionized modern technology, and so on; without leaders to light the way, the masses are left with purpose but no set direction. The fictional character Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation is one of the many who embody leadership. One might ask, why Mrs. Knope? Her character is derived from numerous feminist icons such as Jeannette Pickering Rankin, Nancy Pelosi, Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton; because of this, when I pick Leslie Knope, I also pick all these inspirational women. Moreover, …show more content…

To an occasionally intense degree, Leslie Knope is an ambitious, hard-working, persistent, and optimistic individual who believes that the government should always be of service to its people. Over the years, Leslie has had to face numerous challenges, be it her boss, her co-workers, or even the people she’s trying to provide a service for. When the public screamed at her at public forums, she saw it as “people caring loudly at me.” While this moment was exaggerated for comedic effect, it delineated Leslie’s optimism and persistence. It was this attitude that calmly dealt with sexist government employees, introduced numerous government programs, set up a state country fair, inspired unmotivated co-workers, became the President of the United States, and most importantly, built a park from scratch in an open …show more content…

In a primarily male run government, Leslie charges in as a feminist icon for anyone watching. In addition, the level of focus and competency she possess would make any soul jealous. For example, her proposal to clean up a polluted local river was so impressive that a high ranking government official paid her a visit and offered her a job in federal government.It was her hardwork and attention to detail that allowed her to climb the government ladder and anyone who can do that without a shred of dishonesty deserves the utmost respect.
For these reasons, Leslie has become one of my role models. Aside from our love of waffles, I feel Leslie and I share a few things. We are both feminists who would not hesitate to help a woman in need or correct people who have misconceptions of feminism. In addition, we both have an attention to detail that always yields a superior result we’re proud of. However, we both have our negatives: because we want things to be perfect, we take on too much and forget to rely on others. However, we are both working on changing that because we have supportive people around

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