Mother Teresa as a Global Leader

Mother Teresa as a Global Leader

Mother Theresa is an icon who is celebrated after building up a massive infrastructure of love, care, and compassion to many people in the world. Through her profound and humble behaviors, she was a good example of a servant leader who contributed a lot to shape the world to look how it is today. She had a great deal of persuasion, which did not need an overbearing voice, an office, money, or society to change the world, instead she used conviction, devotion, and humility to bring transformation in the world. Mother Teresa’s real name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu and was born in Skopje, Macedonia, in a family of three children. As she grew up, she was an active member of her Solidarity local parish. Her interest in the church, through the guide by the priest, Mother Teresa was interested in Missionary work, and she responded to a vocation as a Catholic nun at the age of 17 years. After taking her vows into a sisterhood in Sisters of Lorent, she chose the name Mother Teresa after the Patron Saint of missionaries, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux.

It was during her work as a principal in St. Mary’s where she contracted tuberculosis and was sent to rest and recuperate in Darjeeling, where she received her second call to work with the poor. Mother Teresa devoted her life to serving the poor, destitute sick, and the dying around the world, particularly in India. During the early 1900 to mid-1940s, many governments neglected the welfare of their citizens, which led to a decline in the social and economic well-being of different states, such as India (Midgley, 1997). Also, many hospitals had rejected treating the local people and left them to die in the streets. In this case, Mother Teresa started a school to teach poor children in the slums and learning about basic medicine, where she began administering treating sick people.

Later, many children who she taught came and joined her, formed a group, and rented a house to care for the helpless people. According to Teresa & Kolodiejchuk (2007), in 1950, this group was absorbed by the Calcutta Diocese as a Diocesan Congregation and named as the Missionaries of Charity. In 1952, the city of Calcutta availed and facilitated an open space, which was made the first home for the dying. Mother Teresa and the Charity group continued growing, serving the poor people in India and later expanded to more than 450 nations in the world. In her leadership to advocate for social welfare and change, radicalizing the poor and the affected, Mother Teresa pioneered for the establishment of homes for the HIV/AIDS affected people. Through her devotion and humility to bring change to the world, this icon gained global acclaim with her tireless efforts to comfort the poor, sick, dying, and the unwanted.

Humanitarian agencies started recognizing the work of Mother Teresa and started giving numerous awards, for instance, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 (Gjergji, 1991). Through the awards given, Mother Teresa started donating the money to the poor people, which would cater for their needs for many years. In 1980, many homes that took care of the poor, orphans, drug addicts, and schools for domestic violence affected children started to spring up around the world. Besides, through her leadership, Mother Teresa started the first hospital for the HIV/AIDS affected people in New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco, which led her to be crowned the highest U.S. civilian award; the Medal of Freedom.

Furthermore, Mother Teresa went ahead and advocated for topics, such as abortion and family life. For instance, in 1994, at a National Prayer Breakfast, she said, “Please do not kill the child I want the child. Give the child to me” (Teresa, 1994). This leader had a zeal and mercy, which knew no boundaries; she traveled to help victims in Armenia who had been affected by the earthquake, in Ethiopia to help those who had been affected by famine as well as in Chernobyl where they were affected by radiation.

It is through her global leadership, competency that she started engaging in both political and corporate realms. Mother Teresa first became a leader in the world that she was born then later in the world that she lived in. She had a perception of grasping the truth and also working towards solving problems. In the world, this icon had the ability to lead other people who had dedicated their lives to Christ, and even those who wanted to join her. This global leader was not convinced to compromise with social issues, which affected different nations, such as diseases and natural disasters. She was ready to jump into issues, sustain, and attain the people’s needs, which compelled and convinced different states to follow her moves (Slavicek, 2007). Also, she was a leader that presented herself to many people, which was a way to satisfy the poor, comfort the hungry and naked, and help the dying.

Through Mother Teresa’s leadership to fight poverty, diseases, and overcome social issues affecting almost the entire globe, it convicts the contemporary society not to be bound by fear, instead to rise and help those who are in need (Slavicek, 2007). She possessed quality leadership skills that stirred things up in the world and provided boundless resolutions that would be marked and lived by many generations. Mother Teresa is a global servant leader, which the worlds need many people like her, whereby she did not work for fame, power, money, or immortality, instead she worked for a change in the world she lived in.

Mother Teresa acquired many followers, including her students, who she taught many years ago to bring change, not to receive fame from the world. First, she was able to bring change in the community which she lived in and then transformed other many global societies. Mother Teresa always expressed unlimited liability to other people, especially those who joined her and those who she devoted her life to. As a leader, Mother Teresa knew that her mission and vision was to serve those who needed her, thus to fully apprehend this objective, she lived with them an attainable life, neither distanced herself nor despised anyone.

The global leadership competencies of Mother Teresa can be achieved through Bryd’s (2013) framework. This model has formulated fifteen competencies placed in three categories; proficiencies in organizational and business acumen, management of people and relationships, and self-management. In this case, Mother Teresa had proficiencies in the management of people, relationships, and self-management.     Through a critical review, the following competencies are analyzed to assess how they were apparent in Mother Teresa.

First, her competencies in the management of people and relationships included valuing individuals, interpersonal skills, cross-cultural communication, teaming competencies, and empowering others (Mccrory, 2016). Mother Teresa valued all people in the world by giving them respect, despite their differences, thus she had a helping heart. Besides, she valued others by understanding their motivations and emotions. This competency made Mother Teresa to put herself in the shoes of those suffering, such as HIV/AIDS affected people, hence she established hospitals for them. Also, as part of valuing others, she created and maintained trusting relationships, a competency that was reflected when her students returned so that they can continue helping other people in the community.

The interpersonal skills of this icon, such as behavioral, motivational, and attitudinal, enabled her to manage relationships (Mccrory, 2016) effectively. Mother Teresa devoted her time to listen to individuals’ problems and act to establish suitable results. Also, Mother Teresa employed different aptitudes in cross-cultural communication, which played an essential role when serving both in her culture and intercultural contexts. This leader practiced general cultural mindfulness to help the poor in her community and global societies. Also, due to her interpersonal skills, she communicated in foreign languages and negotiated with other countries to develop partnerships geared towards helping the less fortunate.

Moreover, teaming skills helped Mother Teresa to be a global leader through an energized force towards her remarkable innovations. For instance, it was as a result of Mother Teresa’s team proficiency that made Calcutta Diocese absorb the helping group she had developed for poor children in India. This deed was also reflected when she worked with other global teams in leading the subordinates. Mother Teresa empowered many people around the globe through various actions, such as opening up schools in slums, taught children, and nurturing their talents, which was reflected by other successful students who returned to help her in the volunteer work. She also empowered people through authority delegation and condemning anti-social behaviors, such as abortion and domestic violence.

Mother Teresa managed herself by being flexible, inquisitive, resilient, and being global-minded (Mccrory, 2016). This leader was resilient since she managed to cope with increasingly stressful conditions characterized by dynamic environments and cultures, long distances, and different political systems across the globe. Being inquisitive was the norm of Mother Teresa since she learned new experiences and ideas from others that helped in developing her project. The global mindset was reflected in her efforts, which combined new knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors within a global setting. She approached different environments with high multilayered and multifaceted techniques by using her cognitive complexity. The self-management flexibility of this icon enabled her to adjust and adapt to new environments through ambiguity tolerance.

In conclusion, Mother Teresa is a global leader who is being celebrated as a result of her competency and great infrastructure of love, care, and compassion towards many people in the world. In Calcutta, the Indian government had ignored the people’s social and health welfare, which led to increased poverty, and it prompted Mother Teresa to begin her mission to serve the poor, the dying, and the destitute. Her volunteering work in helping the poor flourished and developed, which later stretched outside her community. Mother Teresa’s efforts started gaining fame to the extent of being recognized by different agencies that rewarded her, such as the Nobel Peace Prize. This volunteering task shifted and gained a new phase when Mother Teresa ventured into social topics, such as issues on abortion, which was purposed to instill moral behaviors among individuals so that they could shun away from evil ways. Most of these activities contributed towards her global leadership competence, though she never showed it openly.

As an effective global leader, Mother Teresa possessed different leadership competencies, as formulated by Byrd. Her skills in the management of people and relationships included valuing individuals, interpersonal skills, cross-cultural communication, and teaming competencies. Interpersonal skills, such as behavioral, motivational, and attitudinal, enabled her to manage relationships effectively. Teaming skills energized Mother Teresa’s remarkable developments to become a global leader.

This research had various limitations. First, the study has used the assumption approach, which may have contributed towards the exaggeration of information. Relying on the Byrd model to explain the global leadership skills of mother Teresa is an unreliable framework since physical developments cannot be used to measure intellectual competencies. Also, the research did not utilize personal and reinforcing documents of the main subject, which made it difficult to test the credibility of the provided information.