The Great Man By Martin Luther King, Jr., And Winston Churchill

Transformational leaders motivate by utilizing values, care, and inspiration (Marquis & Huston, 2015). These leaders are developing their employees to strive for growth. Transformational leadership enables companies to look towards the

Becoming a transformational leader can occur either because the leader has a model or mentor that is a transformational leader, because he/she is a born transformational leader, or through reflection. Senge (1990) wrote that “Learning through reflection is about finding the creative tension...between an understanding of current reality and a vision of desirable practice” (as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 24). In addition, Schuster (1994) noted that one who desires to become a transformational leader can cultivate certain qualities that are characteristic of such a leader: a stimulating vision for the organization, honesty, empathy, authenticity, the ability to defer self-interest to ensure that others are recognized, a holistic concern for the organization, the ability to share power with others, and the ability to develop others (as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 25). The transformational leader is also an effective communicator who persists during hard times and still has the courage to continue to move ahead even when fatigued and encountering difficulties (Schuster, 1994, as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 25).

Transformational Leadership empowers or enables its followers. The leader engages with the follower in a way that both the leader and follower transcend to a higher level of motivation and morality (Nicholls, 1994).

In addition, Burns et al., (as cited by Lavoie-Tremblay, et al., 2015) defined a transformational leader as “a leader who can extend and elevate the interests of staff, who can facilitate the commitment of staff to the mission and values of the organization, and who can lead staff to rise above their personal interests” (p. 582). Further, Broome (2013) identified transformational leaders as “proactive and hold core beliefs about the potential for development of both individuals they work with and their organization” (p. 327). Samad et al.(2015), connecting transformational leadership to servant leadership and authentic leadership reported, “transformational leadership is also congruent with regards to fostering higher levels of motivation among the followers’ and leaders’ ability to visualize the unforeseen” (pp.

Throughout recent history, the definition of leadership has been the subject of a vast number books, articles, and essays. Countless authors have attempted define the ability to lead in a tangible way. They have scrutinized on how one becomes a leader and how one successfully leads. Because the ability to lead is so ambiguous and no one can follow a definable set of steps to become a leader, many authors have use examples of leaders to illustrate their views on the subject. And even in the limited scope of time that is the history of the United States, dozens of men and women have lead Americans through their words, beliefs, and actions. Whether they are appointed leaders such as President George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, or leaders of worthwhile cause such as Susan B. Anthony or Martin Luther King Jr., these leaders provide a blueprint that if examined carefully, can provide useful advice for those aspiring to become great leaders. And for Donald T. Phillips, the American leader whose life “still inspires and moves people from all walks of life” and provides an example of leadership that is without equal is Abraham Lincoln (Phillips). In his book Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times Phillips provides 15 overarching leadership qualities that Lincoln followed all throughout his life. By describing how Lincoln exhibited each of these qualities thoroughly, Phillips then relates how potential leaders today can duplicate those same qualities in their

As many countries developed over time, changes have occurred that benefited the citizens of each nation. However, there is one important element that is needed to establish laws, peace, and harmony in each country. This element is known as leadership. Leaders around the world have contributed to the success and evolution of all of our nations, proving to be a huge responsibility. Residents are dependent amongst leaders, who are in charge of protecting their citizens at no cost. Without the presence of them, chaos and corruption would establish, which could ruin relationships and trade with other nations. In history, great leaders have been praised and admired. The characteristics of three great leaders, who are Suleiman, Nelson Mandela, and Queen Elizabeth I, have exhibited the qualities of being a great leader. These traits include causing admiration and inspiration, demonstrating intelligent knowledge, and guiding residents and themselves to solve conflicts that may cause death.

There are many models of leadership that exist across a range of fields (e.g. social work, education, psychology, business, etc.). The ability to transform an organization successfully requires a different set of attitudes and skills. Transformational leadership is an approach where a leader utilizes inspiration, charisma, individualized attention, and intellectual stimulation with their employees (Iachini, Cross, & Freedman, 2015, p. 651). Transformational leadership helps to clarify organizational vision, inspires employees to attain objectives, empowers employees, encourages employees to take risks, and advocates the seeking of alternative solutions to challenges in the workplace (Transformational Leadership, 2015). It allows the leader to engage and motivate each follower identify with the organization’s values and goals.

Additionally, " Transformational Leadership inspires wholeness of being, so your thoughts, feelings and actions are consistent. It is about leading with an integrity and authenticity that resonates with others, and inspires them to follow. Not only does it inspire others to follow, but to become leaders themselves" (Cox, 2007, p. 10).

When sifting through history, books, and movies, it’s extremely hard to find a person who truly exemplifies a perfect leader. Each one invariably always has at least one flaw that they have to overcome to accomplish their task as leader. Whether that flaw is arrogance, insecurity, stubbornness, and/or many more, it ails them from guiding their people at some point in their life. However, regardless of the flaws many leaders have, there are still many great leaders out there, whether they are “good” or “bad.” Many of their flaws they have are outweighed by their great leadership skills and strong personalities. An example of a leader who is not even close to perfect, but he achieves so much through his leadership skills, is Ralph, a leader in Lord of the Flies.

When reflecting throughout America’s history, two people in particular exemplified the essence of true leadership traits, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. While others displayed a vast variety of traits, Martin Luther King Jr. as well as Nelson Mandela displayed traits of leadership that stood the test of time, and while today, their traits still influence, as well as affect people in today’s society. Throughout his time as political activist, as well as South Africa’s first African President, Nelson Mandela’s

The questions regarding what makes a great leader, are they born that way, is there certain behaviors that can be taught, and can one switch from one style of leadership to another, are addressed from multiple perspectives. Three main schools of thought, trait theory, behavioral theory and contingency theory, work to explain the social phenomena of leadership. Though they pull from psychological theories, they each contribute valuable pieces that strives to solve the riddle of what makes or constitutes a great leader. However, this riddle may be far less complex, as John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” (Adams,

A transformation leader is one who stimulates and inspires subordinates to achieve extraordinary outcomes (Robbins and Coulter, 2007). This

Transformational leadership theory applies four factors for leaders to influence employees to perform beyond their abilities. These factors describes leaders that promote leadership through idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration (Shresh & Rajini 2013).Transformational leaders are deem as the most effective leadership style because of their character strengths as a excellent role model who leads by example and manage people based on their strengths and weaknesses to optimizes the organization performance (Shresh, & Rajini, 2013). Transformational leaders are known to reward, encourage and mentor people based on performance through inspiration, creativity, and innovation to solve problems to exceed expectation of the organization (Smith,

Transformational leadership. Burns (1978) is recognized as one of the earliest theorist on transformational leadership, who introduced transformational leadership over 30 years ago. Transformational leaders are perceived as leaders who uplift their employee morale, subsequently uplifting the entire organizational. Transformational leaders are known by their capacity to inspire followers to forgo self-interests in achieving superior results for the organization (Clawson, 2006). Avolio and Yammarino (2002) shared Bass’s explanation of transformational leadership as leaders who act as agents of change that stimulate, and transform followers’ attitudes, beliefs, and motivate from lower to higher level of arousal.

Transformational leadership are classified into four components which are pointed out by Bass (1990, p. 28), ‘charisma, idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration’. Apart from these basic roles, charisma leadership, a collection of personal characteristics, has its own role of literature since it has similarity with transformational leadership and they are contribution to each other (Bertocci, 2009, p. 43; Judge & Piccolo, 2004, p. 755). Leaders’ behaviour reflects them being role models for their followers. Followers respect, admire and trust their leaders who have charismatic effect on their followers to an extremely high grade are willing to take risks