Final Report: Martin Luther King Jr. On Leadership

Matt Balsavich

Dr. Raj Pillai

05/11/15

Final Report: Martin Luther King Jr. on Leadership While looking to pick out a book for this report, I was looking to choose a historical book on an influential leader before my time. At first, I was looking at previous presidents that would allow me to gain some historical value while critiquing the things that made them great leaders. Knowing most of the presidents and what they have done historically, I chose to analyze the leadership style of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Admittedly, I knew little about the civil rights movement and events that led up to reform and change throughout the country. In choosing this book, I got a lot of value from his story and how he went about being a great charismatic

walked the walked. We talked a lot about how it is important for a leader to not only talk the talk, but to also walk the walk. The King demonstrated this when the city of Montgomery challenged his “taxi” service created by the people. When this was outlawed, the King would drive people around and do as much as he could for the people. By people seeing the newly appointed leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association practicing what he preached, he gained the trust and support of followers. This hold true in any leadership role one can be in, the leader must gain respect and trust when

was a transformational (charismatic) leader. When I first analyzed the “I Have a Dream” speech, it was clear he had a vision and wanted to share his vision with his followers. In fact, this was not the only time that he shared a common vision with his followers. Many times during his speeches, King would reiterate points and portray them in different light to make sure the followers would encompass the same things that were important to him from each speech. Martin deployed multiple techniques to capture his audience and share his vision. By looking at table 9.1 in the Northouse readings, we can see that Martin Luther King Jr. had many of the characteristics. He had a strong desire to influence, self-confidence, and strong moral values. His behaviors throughout his leadership role with both the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were consistent with the table. He was a strong role model, showed competence, articulates goals, communicated high expectations, expressed confidence, and reiterated motives. The personality characteristics and behaviors of Martin Luther King Jr. had an extremely positive impact on his cause as a leader. Some of the effects of his followers included; trust in his ideology effect on his followers, common belief shared between leader and follower, obedience, identification with leader, and increased confidence among