Martin Luther King Jr, a leader

The leader I picked for my 600 Word biography of a leader with the connection to Covey 4 and 5 was Martin Luther King Jr who was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Just a little history about who Martin Luther King Jr was as a person and a leader. He was the son of the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. He had an older sister, Willie Christine King, and a younger brother, Alfred Daniel Williams King. He sang with his church choir at the 1939 Atlanta for the premiere of the movie Gone with the Wind. He was of African-American heritage, an American activist and a prominent leader, and was a leader in the African-American civil rights movement. On June 18, 1953 he married Coretta Scott on the lawn of her parents' house in her hometown of Heiberger, Alabama. They had four children; Yolanda King, Martin Luther King III, Dexter Scott King, and Bernice King. He became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama when he was twenty-five years old in 1954. He became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civial disobedience and other non-violent means in 1964 and Martin Luther King, Jr day was established as a U.S. national holiday in 1986.

His leadership legacy was on the civil rights in the U.S and becoming a human rights icon with his public speech of “I had a dream”in March 1963 in Washington where he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement that has established him as one of the greatest leaders in U.S. history. I believe Martin Luther King Jr was an example of a true leader and one that discovered his voice and expressed it as chapter 4 and 5 talked about. His mental intelligence IQ to analyze, reason, use language and comprehend life issues made him an outstanding leader. Another thing that I think made him a great leader is his emotional intelligence IQ of his self-knowledge, self-awareness, social, empathy and his ability to communicate to others such as in his “I had a dream speech”. His Spiritual intelligence IQ of guiding, motivating, and connecting with people as well as his vision, discipline, passion, and conscience was another way he exemplified his leadership legacy and skills. His vision to see the good in people and projects and having the discipline to make his vision, goals and values a success which brought his passion and desire for a common purpose to help his community and the world is what made him the leader he was and his legacy still continues on today.

In closing, Although the 8 habit talks about several leaders in chapter five such as George Washington, Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, and Mohandas K. Ganhi, I believe all of these qualities is what makes Martin Luther King Jr a true leader and one that I look up to and wish to follow in my life as a student leader as well as at home and in my community and for this, I have chosen Martin Luther King Jr as the leader I wanted to discuss in my 600 word biography. With all his accomplishments in his life and how he became such an outstanding leader in our community, the U.S. and the world I feel has made him an outstanding leader and one that we all can look to for guidance long after his death.