leadership....gandhii

8/7/2019 leadership....gandhii

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Table of Contents

Introduction:............................................................................................................................................ 2

Gandhi leadership traits: .......................................................................................................................... 3

Gandhi leadership styles: ......................................................................................................................... 7

Follower centric leadership style: ......................................................................................................... 7

Blake and mouton grid ......................................................................................................................... 8

Situational leadership: ........................................................................................................................ 10

Servant leadership:............................................................................................................................. 11

Charismatic leadership:...................................................................................................................... 12

Conclusion: ........................................................................................................................................... 14

Bibliography:......................................................................................................................................... 15


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Introduction:


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Gandhi leadership traits:

Definite of purpose:

One of the main traits that Mahatma possessed was his definite of purpose. His vision and how

he was to achieve this, was the guiding light for the choices that he made.

His main goal was to set India free and to fight for the rights of the repressed, through the use

of NON violent means.

His total commitment to this at times caused great tribulations for him and his people, but his

principle that, non violence was the correct way to accomplish the goal of freeing India was

always at the fore front of everything he did.

Discipline:

Mahatma believed that challenging his self discipline heightened his commitment to achieving

his goals. He was a focused leader that had aDo orDie attitude. He would free India or die in

the processes.

Mahatma would do extraordinary things to improve his discipline and his commitment. Days of

silence, total celibacy etc.

Integrity:

Gandhi would not accept any deviation to this principle of Non Violence. He would rather go to

jail (which he did often) rather than go back on his word about non violence. His word was his

powerand his weapon.

The basic root of the success of MahatmaGandhi was his absolute integrity. Integrity leads to

credibility. People find out very soon if there is a gap between what you preach and what you

practice. The reason why many of our so called leaders today do not carry credibility is because

there is a gap between what they practice and what they preach. The first requirement for a

leader to be effective is absolute integrity. The integrity of a person is determined by his

background and the values he derives from parents, friends, and teachers and so on. Part of the


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values of integrity is also derived from religion. The values cherished by the society also affect

us. Gandhi came from a background far worse than ours. He was born as the fourth child from

the fourth wife of his father who had less than grade three educations and his mother was

illiterate. Gandhi was a below-average student, was married at age 13 and had fathered a son by

age 16. He was too shy to participate in any extra-curricular activity and had not read a

newspaper until he was 18. In fact he did not show any sign of leadership up to the age of 23.

And then, slowly but steadily, he rose to become one of the greatest leaders that this world has

ever seen.

Related To People:

Gandhi made an effort to truly understand his people. He spoke from their point of view...from

what motivated them. It has been said that, when he spoke publicly to large audiences it was like

he was speaking to you individually.

He did not put himself on a pedestal and segregate himself from his people. He had great

empathy.

He did not let his ego come between him and his people. He was approachable to his people, he

connected to his masses because he loved and tooka stand for them.

He opened his heart to them and was able to connect to them because he was authentic and he

was able to show them his vision and his belief because when he spoke he spoke from the heart.

Beliefand Faith:

Gandhi belief was probably the most important factor in Mahatmas success. He not only had

self belief but he had the ability to INSPIRE the Indian people to believe in themselves and their

goal of freedom, even through all the hardships that they faced.


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Able To Transcend Adversaries:

The first time Mahatma got up to speak in court, when he was working as a lawyer, he could not

speak one word out loud due to fear. This caused him great humiliation. Even though he failed

miserably, those failures eventually lead to him becoming one of the best public speakers ofall

time.

There were quite a number of times Gandhi failed; each time he used the failure to improve his

leadership skills and to improve himselfand the taskat hand.

Mahatma shows us that the even the best leaders still fail and make mistakes. He also shows that

the difference between good leaders and great leaders is that the great leaders acknowledge and

learn from their mistakes.

Spirituality:

Gandhi was able to successfully bring spirituality into his leadership style. He promoted love and

peace in times when another leader would have made a call to arms.

He did not hate anyone. He believed that his enemies were his friends. Basically he transcended

hatred by bringing belief

and love to

all the people he c

ame

across even his enemy.

Gandhis leadership skills were the perfect example ofa principle driven leadership style

Inspire and motivate others:

Gandhi without a doubt could inspire and move the masses in India, he could show the common

man that even he can make a difference and bring the British Empire to its knees. It was possible

since his leadership was based on self-reliance and non-cooperation, something everyone could

adopt and feel that they were a part of freedom struggle, synergizing the common man.


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Credibility:

Gandhi had an initial credibility already establishes through his workand movements in South

Africa. People already had great honorand hopes from him due to what he could achieve in

south-Africa, his non-violent methods were also much respected within the Indian society

Further in India, Gandhi establishes the credibility by leading through example, he established

himselfas a slave of the people of India, empowering the general public. He made his policy to

practice what he preached, even the small things like spinning yarn to make his own clothes. He

resorted to simple and poor living, just like millions in the country, hence people looked at

Gandhi as one of their own, and they could see their own suffering in him

Relationships:

Gandhi established a clear relationship with people by touring across India, leading all the major

movements personally and by holding various public meetings repeatedly. In this way he always

managed to be accessible t others, just a glimpse ofGandhi was enough fora common man to be

connected to this great leader.

Vision and radically different strategies:

One of the most outstanding qualities ofGandhi which makes him great transformational leader

of modern history was his long term vision, self confidence and strong principle of

righteousness.


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Gandhi leadership styles:

Follower centric leadership style:

The majority of leadership theories and studies have tended to emphasize the personal

background, personality traits, perceptions, and actions of leaders. From this perspective, the

followers have been viewed as recipients or moderators of the leader's influence, and as vehicles

for the actualization of the leaders vision, mission or goals. As an alternative to the leader-

centric perspective on leadership, Meindl offered a follower-centric approach that views both

leadership and its consequences as largely constructed by followers and hence influenced by

followers cognitive processes and inter-follower social influence processes.

Leaders and followers are both essential to the organization. Unfortunately, most scholars have

focused primarily on the leaderand the leaders role in motivating followers and neglected the

significance of followers. The following model represents an attempt to put the primary

responsibility for follower citizenship behavior on the follower while still recognizing that

leadership style does manifest some influence.

Gandhi's leadership style is being termed as 'follower-centric' and one that took into account

existing conditions before determining the strategy."Gandhi advocated having leadership styles

that were dependent on the circumstances. When Gandhi was in South Africa, he launched his

protests in a suit and a tie. But when he came back to India, he thought ofkhadi and launched

non-violent protests on a greater scale,"

Gandhi is a fascinating figure. On the one hand, he had totally ambivalent feelings about

industrial manufacturing. But, on the other, he was a wonderful strategist, showman and leader.

He had an amazing public relations networkand a very good relationship with the press then. For

instance, lookat the Dandi march. IfGandhi had gone there quietly, it would just not have made

an impact. He knew he had to create an event to make an impact and so he tookhis followers on

a march that stirred popular imagination of the time. He had a total understanding of the human

psychology and used it along with his public relation skills.


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Blake and mouton grid

Blake and Moutons managerial grid is one of the three major behavioral theories besides Ohio

State University studies and University of Michigan Studies (p58, Yukl, Leadership in

Organizations). It is generally believed in this theory that there are two types of concerns a leader

will have, production or people. A style of management inventory (by Telemetric International

Inc.) was developed based on Blake-Moutons managerial grid to assess ones leadership style.

According to this grid, there are 5 types of leaders:

9/1- TaskManagement

The primary concern for task management is output. People are just commodity just like

machines. A managers job is to plan, direct and control the work.

1/9 - Country Club Management

The primary concern for this type of management is people the relationship. This type of

manager pays little attention to production needs.

1/1 - Impoverished Management

This type of management does not care either production or people. The major goal is to stay out

of trouble by avoiding risk and maintain minimum requirement for both production and

relationship.

9/9 - Team Management

This is best style according to Blake-Moutons Managerial Grid. This manager cares both

production and the people and their relationship. Production is from the integration of taskand

human requirement.

5/5 - Middle of the Road - Politician Style

5/5 manager believes that production comes first but morale cant be ignored. This manager

pushes enough to get workdone, but gives enough to keep the morale.

We believe Gandhi was a 9/9 type leader. He cared not only the outcome of his efforts but also

the people. His non-violent approach in solving conflicts was a good indication that he did not


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try to achieve results with all costs. He was not a task leader. He cared about people, young and

old, rich and poor. He cared about the so-called untouchables. He fought for the freedom of these

discriminated.

He integrated the needs of people with the efforts to achieve them. He was a true leader in the

sense that he set the vision and influenced his followers. With his every goal, he had people's

needs in mind. As a great leader, he had been always among his people even to the moment of

his death.

Some has blamed him on the division of India and Pakistan as he chose not to have flights

between Hindus and Moslems although his goal was to unify India. His leadership style would

not let him to put his task for the freedom and unity of India superior to the people he cared, both

Hindus and Moslems. When facing the conflicts, Gandhi chooses fasting, a suffering on himself

rather than anyone else to end the conflicts non-violently.


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Situational leadership:

The Hersey-Blanchards situational theory is the best leadership theory in my opinion. In this

theory, not only the task behavior, but also the followers behaviors are considered. Like the

Blake and Moutons grid, a two dimensional chart is used. Two elements - task and

leader/followers relation are used as the two dimensions of the chart. There are four maturity

levels of the follower:

1: unable and unwilling;

M2: able but unwilling;

M3: unable but willing;

M4:able

and willing.

For these situations, Hersey-Blanchard proposed four different leadership styles - Telling,

Selling, Participating and Delegating. Depending on the level of followers maturity and task

structures, a leader may choose any one of the four styles.

Gandhi was a change leader. He believed "You must be the change you wish to see in the

world." His leadership style through the lenses of Situational Leadership Theory would be the

participating type. His followers were willing, but unable. They wanted the freedom and justice,

but did not know how to get them. Gandhi had the vision and method to fight with the

authorities. He believed that only method would make them win was the non-violent approach.

He coached and participated with his followers.

His secondary leadership style would be selling. This style works well when the followers are

able but unwilling. There were times when his followers had doubts on his non-violent approach.

He held meetings, speeches and actions such as fasting to convince his followers about his ideas.

He set examples for his followers as a way of selling his ideas and let them know what to do.

He was considered a stubborn man. I have not seen much evidence that his was more flexible on

using other methods such as telling and delegating. He was a doerand liked to be in actions with

his followers. Therefore I would say that his leadership range would be very small and limited to

participating and selling.


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Servant leadership:

According to the grandfather of Servant Leadership, Robert Greenleaf, "The servant-leader is

servant first. Becoming a servant-leader begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve,

to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead . . . . The best test is this: Do

those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more

autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?"

Servant leadership has been proven to be a powerful leadership styles. It is widely applied in the

religious societies. However, the application of servant leadership is no limited to religious

societies; many modern leaders such as JackLowe, Jr., CEO of TD Industries and Max DePree,

former CEO of Herman Miller, Inc. also believe in and are good examples of servant leadership.

To be a servant leader, one must have some of the characters described in the Ten Characteristics

for Servant Leaders. They are Listening, Empathy, Healing, Awareness, Persuasion,

Conceptualization, Foresight, Stewardship, Commitment to the Growth of People and Building

Community.

MahatmaGandhi is a classical example of Servant Leader. Although MahatmaGandhi was not

born as a leader, his people transformed him to be one. He listened and experienced the needs of

Indian people for freedom and justice. He worked against all the objections from the authorities

and governments, as he knew what he did were what the people wanted. He was a true believer

of God and truth. Gandhi believed one who uses coercion is guilty of deliberate violence.

Coercion is inhuman. He searched non-violent against authorities and commitment to the people.

His vision was not set upon himself or just his surroundings. His vision was for the nations and

worlds justice and peace. Although blamed for being stubborn, Gandhi did listen to the voice of

his people, the inner voice of calling for freedom and justice. He respected faith of his people -

my effort should never be to undermine another's faith but to make him a better follower of his

own faith.

Gandhi had proved to us that his servant leadership had more power to the government

authorities. People believed and loved him for what he did for them. Through people's loving

cares, Gandhi succeeded in his fasting to obtain what he wanted from his followers and set

examples for them.


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Charismatic leadership:

Charismatic leadership is one of the new theories about leadership. It is sometimes considered as

a part of traits or behavioral theories. It is believed that certain people have charismatic qualities,

such as visionary, energetic, unconventional, and exemplary. Charismatic leadership style can

be effective in both positive and negative (such as Hitlerand Lenin).

Phenomena that can be observed in charisma include:

1) The followers trust the correctness of the leader's believes;

2) The followers feel affection to the leaderand obey the leader willingly;

3) The followers feel an emotional involvement in the mission they are led to do.

Some of the actions taken by charismatic leaders could be:

Framing Scripting: A quality of communication that causes others to accept one meaning over

another. The development ofa set of directions that define the scene, specifies the actors to be

cast, outlines expected behavior, and cues when events occurand actors enterand exit.

Dialog: Aristotle defined dialog (or diction) as the verbal and non-verbal exchanges among

characters.

Directing: Leaders are directors for performances.

Staging: Charismatic leaders stage-manage their performances.

Performing: The charismatic leader takes the stage to enact scripted dialog and set up the frame

to construct their charismatic character.

Gandhi is a positive example of charismatic leaders. He possessed many charismatic qualities.

For each his action, he had a cause, commitment, vision, energy and courage. His method of

fighting is unique and unconventional. He had power through people. Like many other

charismatic leaders, such as Mother Teresaand Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi knew how to use

the method of setting stage.


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The Salt March: A 241 km walk in 24 days let by the 61 years old Gandhi. This non-violent

strategy to panic the government and gather the momentum of his people to fight for the freedom

of India.

The Charkha (spinning wheel): A method of protest to the machine made European clothing that

caused the high unemployment in India. It boosted Indian economy as well as peoples spirit.

His wisdom, his sacrifice and self-control gave him the powerful image people were looking for

and needed as their leader. He knew he had this power. He did not misuse it. Instead, he fasted to

convince his followers his belief when crises came.


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Conclusion:


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Bibliography:

leadership....gandhii

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