Born this way: Lady Gaga’s five practices of exemplary leadership Open Access

Lady Gaga is a multifaceted artist and has made a significant impact in various fields. As a pop singer, songwriter, musician and actress, she was nominated for 24 Grammy Awards and has had nine successes. Additionally, she has received four Oscar nominations and won one (Gonzales, 2019; O’Kane, 2023). Moreover, in 2019 and 2010, she was chosen as one of TIME magazine’s most influential 100 people (Lauper, 2010; TIME, n.d.). Notably, she performed at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2017 and at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics (Melas, 2017; Perkins, 2024). Gaga is renowned for her creative and impactful stage performances and bold fashion choices. Memorable moments include bleeding onstage during her “Paparazzi” performance at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), wearing her infamous meat dress in 2010 VMAs, arriving at the 2011 Grammy Awards in a giant egg, and bringing 50 sexual assault survivors onstage during her 2016 Academy Awards performance of “Til It Happens to You” song (Anderson, 2016; Chatterton, 2024; Kirkpatrick, 2021; Thorp, 2023).

What truly distinguishes Gaga apart from her contemporaries is her comprehensive involvement in every part of her performance. She not only directs her own shows but also designs the sets, selects the clothes and writes her own songs. Despite having a team of creatives known as “Haus of Gaga,” she maintains control over different aspects of her work (Sturges, 2009). Her dedication to quality, creativity, determination, sense of humor, strong connections with fans and advocacy for social issues position her as an excellent source for learning valuable leadership lessons. Moreover, her worldwide fame makes her a compelling subject for leadership courses globally. Thus, this article examines Lady Gaga’s life, focusing on how her leadership aligns with the five practices of exemplary leadership. It begins with background information about Lady Gaga (Lady Gaga—Awards, n.d.), then explaining these five practices and connecting them to her leadership. Following this, there is discussion on a class application that uses Lady Gaga’s life to teach these principles. It concludes with consideration of the class application and suggestions for future implementations.

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, known professionally as Lady Gaga, was born in 1986 in New York City (“Lady Gaga”, 2022). Gaga began studying piano as a child (“Lady Gaga,” 2022) and went to an all-girls school in the Convent of the Sacred Heart (Sturges, 2009). At the age of 17, she got into New York University (NYU) to study music; however, she left to have a career as a performer (“Lady Gaga,” 2022).

Her debut album “Just Fame” came out in 2008, and she became known for her pop dance music, unique fashion sense, and theatrical stage shows. Within two years, she had emerged as one of the most captivating and thought-provoking pop artists of the 2000s. Some of her hits include “Just Dance,” “Paparazzi” (2008), “Bad Romance” and “Telephone” (2009), “Born This Way” (2011), “Applause” (2013), and Shallow (2018) – with Bradley Cooper (“Lady Gaga”, 2022, 2024). In 2014, with Toney Bennett, she recorded a duet album titled “Cheek to Cheek,” which won the Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album. In 2021, the two artists also collaborated for the album called “Love for Sale” (2021), which is a tribute celebrating songwriter Cole Porter (“Lady Gaga”, 2024).

In addition to singing, Gaga took part in several motion pictures and TV series. For instance, in 2018, she starred in the A Star is Born movie and co-wrote most of the songs for it. In 2021, she starred in the crime drama House of Gucci (“Lady Gaga”, 2022; “Lady Gaga”, 2024; Lady Gaga – Awards, n.d.). In 2024, she portrayed Harleen “Lee” Quinzel in Joker: Folie à Deux movie. That same year, she released “Harlequin” as a companion album to the Joker movie (Cragg, 2024).

As previously mentioned, Lady Gaga is renowned for her unusual costumes and captivating live performances (Biography Reference Bank, 2022). She draws inspiration from artists who have used theatrical performances, such as David Bowie, the New York Dolls and Freddie Mercury – her stage name itself being a nod to Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga” song. Despite these influences, she crafted a persona that stands apart in the music industry (“Lady Gaga”, 2024).

Lady Gaga is recognized not only for artistic talent but also for speaking out on political and social issues. She is a vocal supporter of LGBTQ + rights and has taken concrete actions to back various social causes. In addition, in 2011, she established the Born This Way Foundation (a nonprofit organization) to empower youth with her mother, Cynthia Bissett Germanotta. Gaga has also been open about her personal struggles, including her experience as a sexual assault survivor and her battles with mental health issues (Biography Reference Bank, 2022; Born This Way Foundation, n.d.; “Lady Gaga”, 2022).

Moreover, Gaga has been a passionate advocate for racial and social justice issues. She has been using her platform to amplify the voices of inspiring members and groups within the Black community (Sanchez, 2020). In 2021, while accepting the Yolanda Denise King “High Ground” Award, she addressed her social responsibility as a high-profile artist by saying, “I am aware I am before you as Stefani Germanotta, my given name, as Lady Gaga, a famous white woman with the power of a large platform. My racial identity alone centers my whiteness while I’m still very much finding my place in creating Dr King Jr.’s beloved community” (Brodsky, 2021, para. 3). While Lady Gaga has been the subject of a number of academic articles and books, examining various aspects of the career and music (Deflem, 2017), there is scarce scholarly work about her leadership. To the best of my knowledge, no academic work before has analyzed this within the lens of the five practices model, which will be discussed next.

James Kouzes and Barry Posner built their model of leadership by asking leaders to describe their “personal best” in leading others. Analyzing thousands of these experiences, the authors created their model (Kouzes & Posner, 2013, 2023). Below, each practice is briefly explained. More information about this model can be found in their best-selling book, “The Leadership Challenge.”

1. Model the way: Leaders need to be clear about their values and set standards of excellence. They serve as an example for others to follow.

2. Inspire a shared vision: Leaders envision the future and create a compelling vision of what the organization can become. Through their charisma and persuasion, leaders inspire others for a common vision.

3. Challenge the process: Leaders seek opportunities to change the status quo. They look for innovative ways to improve the organization. Leaders also experiment and take risks.

4. Enable others to act: Leaders foster collaboration by building trust and creating enthusiastic teams. They empower others, instilling a sense of capability and strength in each person.

5. Encourage the heart: To maintain motivation and determination, leaders acknowledge others and reward them for their contributions. Leaders foster a culture of celebrating values and victories, creating a strong sense of community spirit (Kouzes & Posner, 2023; Northouse, 2016; The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership Model, n.d.).

To summarize, this model emphasizes specific behaviors and offers prescriptive guidance on effective leadership practices. It focuses on leader behaviors rather than personality (Northouse, 2016). This focus is important because it suggests that effective leadership can be learned and developed through these behaviors. Next, how Lady Gaga practices these behaviors is discussed.

Lady Gaga exemplifies these leadership practices through her career and advocacy efforts. She also has a strong fan base, which she refers to as “Little Monsters” (a reference to her album “Fame Monster”). And Lady Gaga refers to herself as “Mother Monster” (Little Monsters, n.d.). Here are some ways she demonstrates the five practices.

1. Model the way

Lady Gaga clarifies her values and sets a clear example for others to follow. Accordingly, she co-founded the Born This Way Foundation alongside her mother (Born This Way Foundation, n.d.). The foundation aims to empower and inspire young people, fostering a kinder and braver world while supporting mental wellness (“Our Mission”, n.d.). By living with these values, she inspires her fans to do the same. Grammy-winning singer Celine Dion recognized Lady Gaga’s achievements by saying, “What makes her even more special, and such a powerful influence on society, is that she empowers her fans to adopt the very same values in their lives—to stand up for what they believe in, despite what others might think. By doing so, she gives her followers the strength and confidence to believe in themselves” (TIME, n.d., para. 2).

1. Inspire a shared vision

Lady Gaga has a strong connection with her fans and uses her charisma to inspire her followers. She passionately believes in making a difference. For instance, regarding the “Born This Way Foundation,” she said the following: “Together we hope to establish a standard of bravery and kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment” (BBC News, 2011). Her words and actions have inspired people to envision a world without bullying.

1. Challenge the process

Lady Gaga is truly brave to challenge the status quo. Her unique costumes, captivating performances and social advocacy demonstrate her commitment to making a positive impact. She views her artistry and voice as vehicles for change. She says that “I would prefer to be remembered as brave and unafraid to speak my mind. I don’t think that God gave me this voice to be famous. I think he gave me artistry and my voice and music as a vehicle to change the world, and that’s what I really want to do” (Halpin, 2019, para 11).

1. Enable others to act

Collaborating with artists like Beyoncé, Tony Bennett, Bradley Cooper and Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga fosters teamwork and mutual respect (People Magazine, n.d.). In addition, her Born This Way Foundation teaches high school students about common mental health challenges and what they can do to support their own mental health and help a friend who is struggling (“Our Programs”, n.d.). Through such training and activities, Gaga enables others to act according to her vision for the future.

1. Encourage the heart

Lady Gaga fosters a sense of community among her fans through active engagement on social media platforms such as Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter). She personally crafts her own tweets, interacts with her fans regularly and closely monitors her other social media accounts (“HBS Cases: Lady Gaga”, 2011). She also contributes to this sense of community by, as aforementioned, calling her fans “Little Monsters” and herself “Mother Monster”. Additionally, her memorable concerts and elaborate performances inspire fans with her passion, creativity and kindness.

The activity took place in an online organizational leadership program course with 40 undergraduate students at a Midwest four-year college in the USA. Most participants were sophomores and juniors from various majors. The leadership exercise was implemented on an online discussion board at around mid-semester. While this was their first leadership course for some students, by the time this exercise was conducted, they had a foundational understanding of leadership concepts. The goal of the assignment was to explain how Lady Gaga acts in accordance with the practices in the Exemplary Leadership model.

In this course, the students were first introduced to the Five Practices model. Then, it was explained why we were discussing Gaga in the class and provided several resources on her to get students started on their research of the star. It was also explained to students that valuable leadership lessons can be found in unexpected places, such as Gaga’s life.

The discussion post-assignment, first asked students about their research on Lady Gaga’s life and to associate life and leadership with at least two of the Five Practices and explain their reasoning for doing so for each. In the next question, the students were requested to share the new insights they had gained into leadership based on their research of Gaga’s life.

Since this was an online discussion that needed to be short and to the point, two questions were asked. Students were also prompted to choose two practices instead of five to give them the option of selecting practices that appealed to them the most. After completing the initial assignment, students were asked to read and comment on a minimum of two other students’ responses, which it was believed would help them to see the practices of those that may not have chosen themselves.

This assignment also provided a mental health and sexual assault trigger warning since the resources on Gaga may have raised the issue of the sexual assault she had faced as a teen and mentioned her efforts towards LGBTQ + youth mental health and suicide prevention. Students were advised to contact the professor for an alternative assignment if any of these topics were triggering for them.

Students, overall, performed well in the assignment (average class grade was about 91%) and were successful at associating Gaga’s leadership to the five practices in addition to providing well-thought leadership lessons.

At the end of the semester, the course teaching evaluations asked two specific questions on this assignment (created by the instructor), which were: “What do you think about this assignment? Do you have any feedback on how this assignment could be improved?”. Students overall responded positively to the assignment that involved a popular culture figure. One described the assignment as a bit odd, while another commented that the discussion had a controversial figure due to Lady Gaga’s advocacy efforts with LGBTQ + related issues; therefore, disliked the assignment.

The students were offered several resources on Gaga, as mentioned earlier, to get them started on their research, these being:

1. Fast Company Article – In 2010, Fast Company named Lady Gaga the #1 Most Creative Individual in Business (please scroll down to see the article): https://www.fastcompany.com/3018715/1-lady-gaga

2. YouTube Video – On Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation: “What We Do”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZVtjjuNObM

3. 2021 News Article – Shaping the ‘Gaga-esque’: The Revolutionary Impact of Lady Gaga: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-life-and-times-of-lady-gaga/

4. Gagapedia: A specialized entertainment fan and information site on Lady Gaga: https://ladygaga.fandom.com/wiki/Gagapedia

5. Netflix documentary on Lady Gaga: Gaga – Five Foot Two: https://www.netflix.com/title/80196586

The insights from this application can be valuable to the leadership instructors, encouraging their use of popular culture figures in their courses. Thus, I will discuss both the successes and the unexpected outcomes of the assignment. The student feedback pointed out that, overall, they responded positively to the discussion of how the exemplary leadership model can be applied to a real-life pop culture figure. Based on the student discussion post answers and subsequent feedback, many students were enthusiastic about the use of a popular culture figure in the class, which was a positive aspect of the assignment.

However, as mentioned previously, one unexpected comment described Lady Gaga as a controversial figure due to her advocacy for LGBTQ + issues. Considering the university is in the Midwest America, where students have differing views on LGBTQ + related and other diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) topics, this reaction could have been anticipated. To better prepare students for future versions of this assignment, it would be helpful to remind them that the selected pop culture figure is simply a learning tool and that hearing diverse perspectives is valuable for class discussions. To further improve the assignment, given the teaching evaluation comment on Gaga being a controversial figure and the “odd assignment” comment, in future iterations of this assignment, it would also be beneficial to take more time in explaining why she was chosen as an example for the course and possibly providing a brief instructor video explaining this (as opposed to written text). It would also be beneficial to ask students to choose a pop culture figure they think they can learn leadership lessons from and for them to explain why. This may help address the student feedback on Gaga being a controversial figure and offer the chance of discussing pop culture figures that appeal to each student.

Furthermore, in future applications, students could be asked to choose a Gaga song (for instance, from the genius.com website), search online for the lyrics of the song and research online for the background from a website, such as songfacts.com, watch the related YouTube video clip, and then discuss how the song reflects Gaga’s personality and leadership.

Another future application would be to discuss both effective and ineffective applications of this model. For example, students might be asked to choose two leaders (e.g. celebrities, historical figures, business leaders and coaches): one leader who exemplifies the five practices effectively, and another who falls short. Students can then compare the leadership styles of both individuals, discussing how each leader’s approach influences their followers and the overall organization.

Additionally, instructors can encourage students to analyze the leadership model. First, they can be asked how this model could be beneficial for their own leadership development, considering their strengths and areas for improvement in leading others and how this model may facilitate their growth as leaders. Students can also be prompted to critique the model by identifying any unanswered questions or factors it does not address, such as follower characteristics and organizational conditions.

Moreover, this assignment could be used as an information literacy exercise for students as they look for credible resources. When they search online for Lady Gaga’s life, they will find a number of non-credible resources. Thus, instructors could use this assignment for the evaluation of which resources are credible in terms of trusting the information provided there.

In conclusion, this article exemplifies using Lady Gaga to teach the five practices model with recommendations for implementation. By connecting leadership theory to such a contemporary cultural icon, students can gain practical insights and engage more deeply with the material. This approach also broadens students’ perspectives on where and how leadership can manifest itself.