Gandhi's charismatic leadership qualities and their influence

Mahatma Gandhi

Qualities I admire

the UN has even set and international peace day to celebrate him. Some of the qualities admire in this great man includes his great belief in himself. Mahatma Gandhi did not have a peculiar physique; he was a poor orator, lived a simple life, and did everything to avoid publicity. However, populations across the world still regard him as a great personality because he always believes in himself. He had the belief that he was entitled to a great responsibility to ensure that his fellow citizens lived in absolute freedom. He believed that he had a significant role to play in attaining freedom of the Indian land. His faith has triggered my faith, as well as the faith of billions of people across the world (Punnett & Shenkar, 2004).

Another quality, which I cannot ignore, is his persistence and resistance; to begin with, he was ignored, mocked criticized and fought, but he won the battle. Mahatma Gandhi experienced tough times when he was the leader of the independence movement in China. He led this enormous movement on the guiding principles of non-violence against the cruel and violent British army. The army soldiers beat him on several occasions, leaving him alone to bleed while lying on the ground for days. However, whenever he faced opposition, he would persist and resist thus getting through all forces of opposition (Gill, 2010).

I admire the fact that Mahatma Gandhi was a leader with rich character strength. His character was great who distanced himself from material desires, was always in favor of honest and truth, was against violence. Despite being married, he still led a celibate life and believed on being a vegetarian. All leading newspapers covered him of their front pages as a celebrity, but he maintained high levels of discipline and a simple life (Dalton, 2012).

Leadership style and theory

If one wants to be a leader, the many ways of becoming one but to be charismatic leaders it takes a lot such as self-confidence and charm. The character of charismatic leaders is bound to attract more admires and attention. The main sphere of influence for charismatic leaders is the other person's admiration which they as to persuade others. Charismatic leaders can transform and inspire people they lead if they have good intentions and ethics. Charismatic leaders lacking morality are aspects of destruction and devastation (Punnett & Shenkar, 2004).

Charismatic leaders are very much aware of how and where their destiny lies: they always have anticipation for the vision of others. Their agenda is sensitive to those in their immediate surroundings, their followers, and the potential followers. Charismatic leaders are never afraid of taking any risk especially those that others are afraid to try out; this earns them a lot of admiration. Many would get attracted to them because of such confidence of risk taking (Gill, 2010).

Charismatic leaders have a very high observation of their subjects and understanding their emotional needs. Some of the ways of identifying charismatic leaders arise from their mode of interaction with others. They pay maximum attention in conversations with others one on one. Charismatic leaders are bound to transform their characters to adapt ones that are perceived as the right ones by those they interact with. They implement any available tactics to see that others are on their same point-of-view (Dalton, 2012).

The personal appeal and the social skills of charismatic leaders guarantee them many followers. The moment followers are in the territory of the leader: the leader works tirelessly to create a distinction of their group with other groups. The leader at many occasions will influence confidence to the members of the group and make a challenge for the group members to live up to the expectation of the leader. The leader also to some extent will try to raise the group's status to be a level high than others. This act will increase the group's strength and strengthen the bond of unity. Those who are not charismatic but try to be will spend much of their time trying to add additional strength to their character. Many have their trust sold to charismatic leaders because they know these leaders have their interests at mind (Gandhi & Dalton, 2006).

History has seen many charismatic leaders who affected both positively and negatively on the society. Hitler is an example of a charismatic leader who was in the form of a destructive power. He had the power to communicate using speech to link with his followers: that is how he influenced them to be part of the genocide. Parallel to him was Mahatma Gandhi who used his charismatic charm to influence his followers to participate in protest nonviolently. Mahatma Gandhi was true to his beliefs and this was depicted on the various occasions he fasted and commitment. He was a charismatic leader: this gained him many followers, and it assisted him get rid of the British rule in India (Gill, 2010).

Factors motivated or attributed to the strengths of this individual

Mahatma Gandhi is held as the godfather of India. During the British invasion, he led protest movements against the forces of colonialism. Mahatma Gandhi is such a strong individual because he has drawn masses of people across the world, including Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King influencing hem throughout the 21st Century. His fight for peace makes him a different character. He believed in unity and peace, which prompted him to fight against violence. Using peaceful demonstrations and hunger strikes, he led India to freedom. He attributes his objection to violence because violence brings temporary good and permanent evil; this indicates his strong belief in peace. Eventually, in 1947, the British army surrendered because Gandhi had influenced the Indian people to become uncooperative. He had made India become one great peaceful power based on the principle of equality. The contribution of Gandhi is much than being the leader of the nonviolent struggle in order to achieve freedom of India. He had very great visions with a global idiom: he recognized India's societal syncretism (Dalton, 2012).