Powerful Kalinda Sharma Moments from "The Good Wife"

Kalinda Sharma (played by Archie Panjabi) is an admirable character on "The Good Wife" whose actions offer valuable lessons for women in the workplace. As a no-nonsense private investigator at Stern, Lockhart & Gardner, Kalinda plays a key role in the outcome of many episodes of this TV show. Here are some of her most powerful moments from "The Good Wife" that shows how she manages to stay on top of her game in a challenging job. This list may contain spoilers from season 1 of "The Good Wife."

Getting a Raise "The Good Wife" Style
In the episode "Crash," Kalinda took advantage of her position as Diane's secret errand person by mentioning the earnings of another employee who does not perform as many duties, rather than directly asking for an increase in her pay. She is sent to investigate a man that Diane is dating, who is also being considered as a partner for the firm. Kalinda knows that her duties and the manner in which she performs them are an asset to Stern, Lockhart & Gardner and uses this factor to increase her pay scale. The side work and tasks given by Diane were not exactly part of Kalinda's job description in this episode since the main plot involved Alicia defending the widows of train engineers from their husband's employer. She still took on the extra work without complaining and then stood up for herself, which resulted in Diane mentioning the possibility of boosting Kalinda's earnings at the law firm.

Separating Personal and Professional Life
The subject of trust and corruption becomes an prominent issue in the episode "Running" where Kalinda finds out that a detective named Anthony Burton who she is romantically involved with is being investigated but does not bring this news to his attention. From one point of view, her actions appear to be selfish since this detective has helped her generate leads that give Stern, Lockhart & Gardner an advantage over their opponents in a court case. Instead of giving him notice, Kalinda lets the trial play out until she can figure out whether he is a dirty cop or not. She ends up losing not only a friend or lover who she connected with since the episode "Unplugged" earlier in season 1 but also a valuable resource that could help her complete investigative tasks for the law firm more efficiently.

At the end of the day, she still has a job and can find another detective to flirt with for toxicology reports so Kalinda chose work over friendship and a potential long-term mate. The upside to this experience is that she started to have a social life outside of the law firm, which is a nice lesson for working women. It's refreshing that television audiences were able to see Kalinda in romantic scenes because she is often viewed as a cold-hearted character. The kisses between she and detective Anthony Burton and then her later grief after he no longer wanted to be friends helped to humanize her character on "The Good Wife" as someone who audiences can relate to on a personal level.