Leading Change Sample Assignment (GC01567)

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction.

2.0 What leadership traits did King demonstrate during the Selma marches to support and advance the civil rights cause?.

2.1 What is leadership?.

2.2 Traits of a good leader

2.3 King’s leadership traits during the Selma marches.

3.0 King employed various tactics when dealing with various people or groups. What does this imply about his leadership style?.

3.1 Tactics of a great leader

3.2 How various tactics of King imply about this leadership style.

4.0 Was King the right person to lead the Selma protest?.

5.0 Assess King’s overall leadership, using appropriate models/theories.

6.0 There are further prominent historical leaders portrayed in Selma. Using appropriate models assess their leadership and influence on these events.

7.0 Conclusion.

References.

1.0 Introduction

Leadership plays a significant role to maximize efficiency as well as meeting particular goals and objectives (Mullins, 2014). Effective leadership contributes a lot in initiating actions, motivating people, providing guidance to the followers, creating confidence among the followers, building morale among people, co-coordinating personal interest, and building a friendly work environment (Torrington et al., 2015). This paper assesses and analyzes a variety of leadership traits and styles practiced in the Selma civil rights movement. The first section of this paper defined leadership traits in general, and the traits that King had in the Selma march. The second part of this paper assesses the various tactics used by King in the march. The third part evaluates whether King was the right person to lead the Selma movement. In the fourth part, the leadership styles practiced by King are assessed and analyzed. The last part of this paper discussed leaderships practiced by prominent historical leaders portrayed in Selma.

2.0 What leadership traits did King demonstrate during the Selma marches to support and advance the civil rights cause?

2.1 What is leadership?

Leadership refers to the activities of leading people or an organization towards specific goals and objectives (Mullins, 2014). Leadership establishes a clear vision and shares this vision with followers and influences them to follow willingly (Northouse, 2013). Leadership also shares information and knowledge to realize the vision of leaders and balance and coordinate the interest of followers and stakeholders (Sosik and Jung, 2015). In addition, leadership faces and overcomes challenges by thinking and acting creatively in difficult situations (Torrington et al., 2015).

2.2 Traits of a good leader

Leadership traits refer to the personal qualities that create an effective and good leader (Sosik and Jung, 2015). Torrington et al. (2015) identified eight important characteristics of good leadership that are passion, ability to inspire, thirst for learning, strong communication, work-life balance, hardworking, clear values, emotional intelligence, and ability to inspire others. Mullins (2014) defined ten traits of a good leader that are honesty, ability to delegate, ability to communicate, sense of humor, confidence, commitment, positive attitude, creativity, ability to inspire, and intuition.

2.3 King’s leadership traits during the Selma marches

In the Selma civil rights movement King demonstrates a variety of leadership traits to influence and motivate the followers towards the marches. King had a clear vision and values regarding the marches. He was so honest as to move the people towards the civil rights movements without any unrest and violations. He led to a peaceful protest. King was a phenomenal leader who possessed self-confidence, intelligence, a thirst for learning both formally and informally, and determination. That is why he was able to successfully lead the Selma civil rights movements. He was very powerful and had the ability to inspire followers. His emotional intelligence and outstanding voice of speech motivated thousands of people towards the marches. He selected very specific motivational and inspirational words that encourage his followers to overcome challenges and turn impossible into possible with their faith and willingness in the visions of King.

He had extremely strong verbal ability, the reasoning appears and perceptual ability that made him a successful leader. His “I Have a Dream” speech inspired many people during the marches. His overconfidence led the African American community to be treated equally and to change their lives without racism. King was determined, passionate and hardworking to fulfill his dream to be treated equally that inspired his followers significantly. King had strong communication skills that motivate the followers to share their ideas and opinions. King always communicated on an emotional level with his followers. His positive attitude guided the followers towards peaceful protests. In addition, King was always dedicated to his followers in any risky circumstances towards developing their civil rights movements. King was also able to take risks. Thus, he put himself and his followers in challenging situations to fight for freedom. Therefore, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and he could fulfill his dream (Selma Movie, 2014).

3.0 King employed various tactics when dealing with various people or groups. What does this imply about his leadership style?

3.1 Tactics of a great leader

Torrington et al. (2015) identified eight key tactics for a good leader to influence his followers. These are direction, persuasion, negotiation, involvement, indirection, enlistment, redirection, and repudiation. McKee (2012) identified six tactics of natural leaders that are: a) be clear about the end game; b) first things first; c) be proactive and reactive; d) think “abundance”, e) ask, do not tell; and f) continuous renewal. Griswold (2013) defined four problem-solving tactics of great leaders that communicate transparently, break down silos, foster an open-minded culture, and always have a plan of action…………………….

Leadership & Management