Gandhi's leadership styles

The theory of transformational leadership can be used to explain why Gandhi was considered a great leader. He was regarded as having a divinely inspired gift. He was keen to provide reassurance to his followers to motivate them to overcome the obstacles they faced. Gandhi walked his talk and was very careful to consider the moral consequences of his actions, an indication that he was convinced about the ideals he taught. He also helped his followers to identify his problems and solve them and was hence seen as a champion of change.

Business leaders can learn a lot from Gandhi on matters of effective leadership. The biggest lesson is on the importance of following through on the values they preach about. In the real-organization world, leaders need to ask themselves to what level do they adhere to the organization’s policies on different issues such as dress code, travelling and time schedule.

The most important lesson from this exercise is that as a leader I need to lead by example. This will earn me the respect from the people I am leading and it is bound to get me more cooperation since they can see the practicability of the values that I advance.