Research a prominent leader, living or deceased, who you admire. Explain whether the leader’s style is transactional or transformational. What type of leadership characteristics does the leader demonstrate? What aspects of servant leadership does the leader exhibit? Provide relevant examples to support your claims.
Leadership can be defined as influencing individuals for the purpose of achieving a common goal. In entrepreneurial concept, this usually means the use of innovative and different creative ways to do things. There are many prominent leaders who have led their teams to success and marked their names to be remembered forever because of their different and unique leading style. Indeed, there is not one particular unique leadership style and hence not one specific formula to lead a team or organization to success. However, there are certain aspects or variables of leaders, which are found the most relevant and productive in terms of employee engagement in the workplace. This includes commitment, loyalty, productivity, pride, and motivation (Weiss, 2015).
A person can be inspired by any leader. There are many leaders who are all successful, but have entirely contrasting ways of leadership styles. This does not make them right or wrong. These are merely distinctive ways of leading a group of people. The prominent leader who I admire is an example of the transformational leadership style. Transformational leadership is the style of leadership in which the leader seeks to engage the followers and change them through a compelling vision, culture, and strategy. This is done by the transformative leader by being attentive to the needs of the followers and identifying the changes needed. Transformational leaders are those who inspire the organizations and its teams to achieve their full potential.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. the name of the person whose name is known by generations and will be remembered by the future generations yet to come. He is still influencing, after his death, thousands of people towards equality and towards a system which promotes these ideals. Why Dr. King would be considered as a transformational leader can be discussed by analyzing the characteristics of his leadership style. The mutual characteristics of Dr. King and a transformational leader are as follows:
Challenging the Status Quo & Unconventional way of Doing things/ Intellectual stimulation
Dr. King challenged the status quo, which promoted segregation and unfairness by suggesting a new direction towards democracy, justice, and brotherhood among all races. This was fueled by the “urgency of now”. He urged his followers to look with open eyes at the struggles of the black men and women in their daily routines. This is depicted in the bus boycotts through which he has not protested against the Whiteman, but also made the black people aware of their unjust lives (Bass & Riggio, 2006). He challenged the black people as well to rally together and finds solutions to transportations without using the buses. This fueled the followers and being successful in the challenge of getting to the destinations without using buses, they raised their momentum. These boycotts made them make the statements of challenging the status quo. It takes a lot of organization and coordination to ensure that each of the follower’s remains pumped up and high spirited during the full ordeal and does not lose faith. Dr. King showed the brutal and violent facts of beating through the event of “Bloody Sunday”. The popular culture of that time was shaking to its roots by Dr. King through his actions and vision. He did things which were then unexpected and different, which is sometimes the only thing needed to initiate innovation and evolution.
Encouragement of the Followers/ Individualized Consideration
It was not a calm and clean regime of the simple following of Dr. King’s direction. The followers of Dr. King had to go through brutal beatings, storms of persecutions, trials, and tribulations. Dr. King did not let it go unnoticed and often took time to sympathize with his followers. He encouraged them by telling them to continue to believe that this suffering is unearned without the desired results. He created hope for them showed the marvelous results of their cooperation in the future. He spoke at rallies and conducted speeches to encourage and motivate his followers. He did not at any cause promote violence and made his believers believe in his vision, even at the cost of being brutally violated (McGuire & Hutchings, 2007).
Articulate Vision
As any transformational leader, Dr. King had a clear vision of what he wanted to achieve. His famous “I have a dream” speech I remembered as one of the greatest speeches of all time. The vision shown by his speech motivated millions of people beyond his audience of that time into believing that they can become the tool in emaciating themselves from the shackles that hold them from their dream life. The various parts of this speech are still being quoted and used by leaders, teachers, and many others for their own individual purposes.
Serving as a Role Model/ Idealized Influence
As a transformational leader, Dr. King acted and showed his personality traits to his followers and influenced them by his charismatic personality. Even decades after his assassination, his influence through his leadership legacy is not limited. He was then and now able to persuade the world into believing that his dream of a better future is possible and legitimate. He can still be considered as one of the greatest influences of all time who inspired generations in spite of the “color of his skin”. His speech questioned the consciousness of the peoples and has led to the today’s American life, which might not have been the same without him. The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize shows the impact of this leader in terms of his worldwide following towards his dream (Pierce, 2013).
Servant Leadership
Dr. King’s leadership style shows the marks of servant leadership. He was the one who listened to someone who might be considered as unimportant, in this case, it is the black people (Ferch, 2012). Servant leaders are the one who helps others, irrespective of the benefit it may give them. Dr. King’s political and civil rights activities were all for the benefit of others and not for his own fame. As is evident with the servant leadership, Dr. King put service before his self-interest. His concerns were always focused on the benefit and service to the mankind and not on his self-interest. Another characteristic making him as a servant leader is his inspiration through a trust. The followers of Dr. King mostly black people then trusted him with their lives. His charismatic personality made his followers believe him even to the extent that they trusted their lives with him. His goals may seem idealistic, but that was the charm of his speeches and his charisma, he made the idealistic goals look reachable to the black people. The Negros who was born to slave, and was destined to remain slaves for generations were dreaming and believing his dream of freedom as feasible, which is also a trait of a servant leader. This shows that Dr, Martin Luther King was indeed a great instance of a servant leader.
Conclusion
Dr, Martin Luther King is an ideal model of a transformational leader showing the characteristics of a visionary leader, with charisma, motivating strategies for his followers, and a knack for doing things differently. He was one of the best examples of servant leaders who spent their lives for the sake of his follower’s benefits.
References
Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational Leadership. Psychology Press.
Ferch, S. R. (2012). Forgiveness and Power in the Age of Atrocity: Servant Leadership as a Way of Life. Rowman & Littlefield.
McGuire, D., & Hutchings, K. (2007). Portrait of a transformational leader: the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 28(2), 154-166.
Pierce, A. (2013). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as Spiritual Leader. Interntional Journal of Business and Social Research, 3(8), 23-43.
Weiss, J. W. (2015). An Introduction to Leadership, (2 ed.). Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
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