Lady Gaga's personal brand of leadership inspires me to courageously fly my freak flag so the right people can see me. Her brand is powerful because of her intentional use of cultural reference to build her brand and expand her audience base. Her visual aesthetic reminds me of Weegee, Tim Burton and Marilyn Manson. Many of her dance movements remind me of a form of Japanese dance theatre called butoh and taught by one of my teachers, Vanessa Skantze.  The image of her and the uzzi (at the top) reminds me of Valerie Solanas, a radical feminist writer and the woman who shot Andy Warhol. Each of these references identify values with different groups of people that come together to form her audience base.

Even though I see all these references in her work, she still manages to pull it all together as a consistently unique creative voice. She, like Andy Warhol, is a leader because of how she connects the worlds of celebrity, art and advertising in a distinctive and controversial branded style that inspires new ways of thinking in the main stream market. Pop singer, Lady Gaga has an avant guarde leadership style.

This is a great article that goes into more depth about Gaga's connection to Warhol.

Next up, The Leadership Style of Maria Popova

Now it's your turn.

This post is part of series called: Leadership Style: How to Level-up Your Personal Brand.

I challenge you to create a list of leaders who inspire you. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a chain of blogs referencing stylish leaders around the globe?

If you blog about it, tag this post, leave your url in the comments below and I’ll add it to this article. These are my ideas for hashtags, but if you have others, comment below. #womenleaders #leadershipstyle #creative class