Leadership Style

Leadership Style

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to trace the style and specific characteristics demonstrated by a great leader. In this paper, leadership styles and characteristics of Mother Teresa has been considered. In order to be effective leaders, we find many styles, which meet our needs and those of the institution.

Leadership Style of Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa used the servant leadership style throughout her life. In this type of leadership, the leader takes care of the requirements and the needs of his/her followers in the same way that they take care of their personal needs. Rather than behaving like a king to individuals under their supervision, these leaders behave like servants. In this leadership style, leaders feel that they need to help their followers, and not to force them to do things that they want.

Even though Mother Teresa was a servant-leader, still she was very compelling. As a servant leader, she was attentive to her followers. In every charity work that she carried out, she first emerged as servant. From the perspective of servant leadership, she was not very much concerned regarding her followers; rather she was concerned about those individuals whom she was providing help (Slavicek, 2009).

Mother Teresa always considered herself as servant for poor individuals and servant to God. As a servant leader, she found out what she could do by interacting with her followers. The followers of Mother Teresa just saw her vision, that is the vision of God, for their lives and helped in her work, that is the work of God (Stone, 1999).

As a servant leader, Mother Teresa believed herself as first among equals. This concept is the at the center of servant leadership style. As a servant leader, she did not consider herself above those individuals whom she provided help, rather she saw those individuals as peers to learn and teach from them. She was willing to lead other individuals in order to achieve an agreed objective; however, she always believed that being a leader could not make her superior than others.

Because of this leadership style, Mother Teresa was a skilled team builder. She drew upon the strengths of her followers, and behaved as a follower whenever it was possible. As a servant leader, Mother Teresa did not led by dictate or decree. As an alternative, she led by permitting individuals to do whatever they wanted to do. In this regard, she was directing individuals to their suitable positions, stepping them out of the spotlight and allowing them to shine (Low, 2010).

As a servant leader, Mother Teresa honestly used her power, as this is fundamental for servant leaders to make use of power and leadership legitimately. For the good of individuals she served. She saw leadership as a method of obtaining the basic good, and she did not consider herself as a desired individual end.

For many of us observing individuals in power, the difference is very much clear. Individuals do not search for the loan shark ...