Gandhi ,now referred to as Mahatma, meaning “great soul”, is considered one of the most influential world leaders. From humble beginnings he gained world prominence, helped achieve independence for India and left a lasting legacy for us all. His style was that of a pacifist.
Through his legacy we have learned many leadership lessons. He taught us to always have continuos learning and improvement. Gandhi always told his followers that if two of his sentences contradict each other, please ignore the first one and except the second one (Carter,2005). This reflected his learning and growth mindset, as well as his anticipation of his followers needs. He taught us to be an excellent listener. Not being a skilled public speaker, he was an exceptional listener of both the articulated and unsaid (Carter, 2005). Gandhi proactively identified barriers to make change sustainable. He was a conscience keeper, believing in non-violent movements and known for aborting movements if that was violated by his followers (Carter,2005). He showed us it is important to have self-awareness and discipline to be an affective leader. Communication was extremely important to him, through clear and passionate communication people will follow because "passion is contagious" (Bligh,Robinson, 2010). He believed one should have a path and an end result. His path was to fight against the imperial powers only with the weapon of non-violence, with the result of India's freedom from Britain (Carter,2005). How he lived and how he led, were his strengths.
Some say his weakness was his refusal to see the realities of human nature; of people's daily needs making them willing to collaborate with the rulers in exchange for career and business opportunities; of the nationalism of the Hindus who would oppose the partition of their Motherland tooth and nail; of the nature of the Pakistani state as intrinsically anti-India and anti-Hindu (Elst,2004).
Gandhi led India to independence and inspired...