Leadership Style Essay: The Leadership Styles Of Mahatma Gandhi

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The Leadership Styles of Mahatma Gandhi Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) is known as a champion for the Indian people in their struggle for independence in the first half of the 20th century. Being an authoritative but not authoritarian leader, he is the one who brought the non-violent concept (Ahimsa) as his own feature of the leadership style (Charteris-Black, 2007, p. 66). According to Peter G. Northouse’s classification, Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership style belongs to a transformational supportive style (Northouse, 2012, p. 186). Generally speaking, transformational leadership style is the one, which changes and transforms people by using a set of influence techniques. The most obvious transformational, authentic, and servant leadership factors Gandhi possessed were as follows: Charismatic character. By leading an extraordinary life, Gandhi was successful in gathering the Indian population and mobilizing them to fight for independence, without physically fighting. Though small in stature, Gandhi spoke with confidence and stood up for his While on a train headed to Pretoria, a white man was outraged that Gandhi was seated in first-class even though he had a ticket. The passenger demanded that he move to the back of the train. After negating to comply, “Gandhi was forcibly removed and thrown off the train at a station in Pietermaritzburg” (Mahatma Gandhi Biography, 2015, para. 8). From a child, Gandhi innately had a passion for serving others and this life-event lit the flame to cast out social and racial prejudice present in society. In 1894, he founded the Natal Indian Congress, aimed at doing just that. All his past experience influenced his future leadership qualities. By having learned to listen to the others, he became a great mentor for the others and his ability to convince, multiplied by his charismatic personality opened many doors for him during the years of being a

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