Mitchell Dean
Professor Rojas
March 1, 2020
Leadership Competency
Ashton Kutcher has been one of the most popular actors in the past couple of decades. He has appeared on popular TV shows like That’s 70s Show while also creating the show Punk’d and staring in many movies. While these are great accomplishments by Ashton he has done so much more and many people don’t even realize or give him the recognization. Recently Ashton has been focusing on his leadership role on twitter and also the CO-Founder of an organization called Thorn. Thorn was created in 2012 and they help build technology to defend children from sexual abuse and human trafficking. I believe Ashton Kutcher is an excellent example of leadership in digital contexts because he makes many connections to competencies. I will be discussing how Ashton relates to Personal, Positional, and communication competencies and the relations he has with them.
Ashton has many characteristics that make him perfect for being a digital leader in today’s society. While the first competency area I believe he connects the best with is the personal competency. Personal competency as described by Ruben (2006) includes character, personal values, and ethics, Ashton has put his acting career on hold and really focused on making the world a better place by co-finding the organization called Thorn which focuses on building technology to help stop sex trafficking around the world. Kutcher (2020, February 19) Incredible reporting by @mhkeller @gabrieldance @nytimes. This is why we do what we do @thorn. A Criminal Underworld of Child Abuse, Part 1.Ashton tweeted out this tweet containing also a link to a news article showing how his organization is finding ways to help the child abuse that is going on in today’s world. This shows that he has the character, personal values, and ethics to help spread the word on child abuse and is doing it without hesitation or being told to do so. The personal values he holds to be able to put down acting as much and to focus on areas to help save kids in today’s world shows the ethics that he has and makes him a valuable leader. Ashton has also retweeted Conway (2019, December 3) As a long time investor of Thorn, I have witnessed the impact of my gifts and how children are being identified faster thanks to Thorn’s tools. That’s why I’m matching donations made on #GivingTuesday dollar for dollar, up to $50,000. This retweet shows how he is a role model in today’s society by having other people also investing in his organization and helping the cause of what his organization is doing today and saving countless children’s lives daily. He is spreading the word on sex trafficking through Thorn and have other investing donate large sums of money to help the cause shows how he is a role model in today’s society.
The second competency that I believe Ashton relates to is his positional competency. Positional competency as described by Ruben (2006) includes education. Ashton’s relation to this is because he has an education in the organization of Thorn and is always trying to learn more so he can continue to help the world. Kutcher (2019, April 17) Do you work at a tech company that hosts user-generated content? If so, you have a unique role to play. http://bit.ly/2Ive8z6 #EliminateCSAM. He is spreading the word of the education he has to eliminate child abuse content that is going on, online in the dark web and how child abusers are taking advantage of vulnerabilities in your platform in security. The only thing he wants to do is spread the word on how these child abusers are operating and how you can help fight the cause and lead the charge to eliminate as many child abusers as possible. This shows Ashton has the education to help organize a company to help in cases of child abuse around the world. He has also set up a team around him in this organization that has professional involvement in all areas of the field. This enables him to set up a team that will allow Thorn to strive for greatness because he surrounded himself with professionals that will help his cause. Kutcher (2019, October 15) Our fearless CEO articulates our vision at thorn. Join us! In this tweet, he has linked a TED talks from his CEO of thorn on “ How we can eliminate child sexual abuse material from the internet: http://t.ted.com/VUklNQ7 @juliecordua” In this TED talk it describes how we can help eliminate child abuse on online platforms and how Thorn is being used with their new technology to help the federal government with online child abuse cases. Ashton Kutcher shows great similarities to the positional competency and this shows how he is becoming such a leader in today’s society.
The last competency that I believe Ashton fits into the most is the communication competency. Communication competency as described by Ruben (2006) includes credibility and trust. This is because Ashton is such a popular leader and many people know of him and the charge he is leading against child abuse. He has developed the credibility and trust of many people around him and his organization has became so popular just off of him spreading the word. Kutcher (2019, April 16) This is just the beginning, and we won’t stop until every child can simply be a kid. #EliminateCSAM http://bit.ly/2ItV9oL. This tweet is also linked to another TED talk that has been organized by the company Thorn. This interview shows other actors that Ashton Kutcher has developed trust with many like Micheal B. Jordan who talks about how this organization is helping lead the charge on child abuse and to follow the movement that is going on within this organization. This shows Ashton has great influence and persuasion on others to help spread the word. Kutcher (2019, March 21) Another amazing group working to fight human trafficking! Props! This tweet is directly related to the influence and persuasion he has had on the world today with human trafficking. Ashton is trying to make society more aware of major events that are going on in today’s world and he is doing it in a perfect way. He has influenced and persuades many to hop on board the human trafficking and child abuse train and this shows by the countless organization that have now become available to show support to child abuse and human trafficking that is becoming such a major problem in today’s world. This shows the type of leadership that Ashton Kutcher is and how it is looked up to and admired.
In conclusion, Ashton Kutcher is a leader that everybody should be made aware of because of the impact he is having on today’s society. He has many connections to competencies and showed how you should be if you wanted to develop yourself into becoming influential in digital contexts. I have self-reflected on what competencies I need to work on to become one of these leaders and the first one I believe Personal. Personal competency as described by Ruban (2006) includes self-discipline and self-confidence. I believe I need to develop this area in personal competency because I tend to lack in the area of self-confidence the most. Being able to have complete confidence in yourself can bring you to the next step on becoming influential in digital contexts. Being able to set up and speak what is on your mind or an idea that you have is the first major step on becoming influential. This is because if you don’t have self- confidence you will never have the will power to actually stand up for what you stand for. I am often nervous to speak up because I am nervous that I am going to be wrong when in reality it is your opinion and speaking up can show that you are ready to take charge and lead. Public speaking can be a lot of people’s downfall and it all relates to self-confidence if you believe in yourself you can do anything. That is one competency that I believe i need to work on in order to become that leader I want to be in the future. While another competency I believe I need to work on is Organizational. This competency I believe is crucial for you to become that digital leader you want to be. While information knowledge management and boundary spanning is one area that I believe I need to work on the most and this is because it is the flow of sharing information within a group and organization and across organizational boundaries. Sharing information within a group or organization is a major step that I need to focus on and it relates a lot to self-confidence as well. I need to be able to share information that I have and not hold back. Usually, I would wait for others to speak up and states the facts that they have rather than speaking up and saying what I have found out. Sharing information is so important in becoming that digital leader I want to be so I need to focus on this competency and realize that the information I have could and will be important and not be nervous to hear peoples feedback or to second guess myself because I also think my answer is wrong. Now that I know what I need to focus on to become that influential leader in digital context I will continue to work on these competencies and try and become what Ashton Kutcher is in today’s world.
References
Conway, R. (2019, December 3). As a long time investor of Thorn, I have witnessed the impact of my gifts and how children are being identified faster thanks to Thorn’s tools. That’s why I’m matching donations made on #GivingTuesday dollar for dollar, up to $50,000http://bit.ly/33Op4id. @RonConway. https://twitter.com/RonConway/status/1202009064575664128
Kutcher, Ashton. (2019, March 21). Another amazing group working to fight human trafficking! Props!https://twitter.com/McCainInstitute/status/1108797972924510210 …. @aplusk. https://twitter.com/aplusk/status/1108827120501817344
Kutcher, A. (2019a, April 16). This is just the beginning, and we won’t stop until every child can simply be a kid. #EliminateCSAM http://bit.ly/2ItV9oL https://twitter.com/thorn/status/1118303343863042050 …. @aplusk. https://twitter.com/aplusk/status/1118309979763535872
Kutcher, A. (2019b, April 17). Do you work at a tech company that hosts user-generated content? If so, you have a unique role to play. http://bit.ly/2Ive8z6 #EliminateCSAM. @aplusk. https://twitter.com/aplusk/status/1118596903648755714
Kutcher, A. (2019c, October 15). Our fearless ceo articulates our vision at thorn. Join us!https://twitter.com/TEDTalks/status/1184166438816419842 …. @aplusk. https://twitter.com/aplusk/status/1184179754058027010
Kutcher, A. (2020, February 19). Incredible reporting by @mhkeller @gabrieldance @nytimes. This is why we do what we do @thorn. A Criminal Underworld of Child Abuse, Part 1https://nyti.ms/2uPhZmt. @aplusk. https://twitter.com/aplusk/status/1230316018406313984
Ruben, B. D. (2006). What leaders need to know and do: A leadership competencies scorecard. Washington, DC: NACUBO.
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