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Haley Elliott
Professor Roberson
Perspectives of Leadership
24 May 2013
Mother Teresa: A Leader
On August 26, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia, a little girl named Agnes Goxha Bojaxhiu
was born. Her father was a successful businessman and her mother stayed at home to take care
of the three children. Her father’s business provided her family with great wealth and stability.
(Rosenberg, “Mother Teresa”). She received an exceptional education, learned to play the
mandolin, and was very skilled at writing poetry (Van Biema, “My Take: The Mother Teresa
You Don’t Know”). The Bojaxhiu family was devoutly Catholic. They prayed daily and
participated in annual pilgrimages. The Bojaxhiu’s family was shaken when Agnes’s father
passed away unexpectedly; Agnes was only eight at the time. In order to cope with the tragedy,
Agnes’s family focused on their faith. Agnes sang in the choir, helped organize church events,
and helped distribute food to the hungry. By the age of twelve she considered committing herself
to becoming a nun. While staying involved in the church, Agnes spent the next five years
contemplating whether she wanted to devote her life to the cloth. At the age of eighteen, Agnes
decided to go forward and commit to the convent. (Rosenberg, “Mother Teresa”) Agnes left her
family and moved to Rathfarnham, Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto, who focused their
missions in India. After training and learning English in Dublin, Ireland, she was sent to India. It
was in India on May 24, 1931, where she took her initial vows as a nun. (Abrams, “Peace 19711980”). From 1931 to 1948, she taught history and geography at St. Mary’s High School in
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Calcutta (also known as, “the school for the wealthy”). She stayed at the school for fifteen years,
but decided to leave after a visit to the slums in Darjeeling, India. This visit inspired Agnes,
giving her a calling to “serve Christ among the poorest of the poor”. (“Mother Teresa and the
Nobel Peace Prize”) Agnes would go on to devote her life to charity and helping others. The
impact she made on the world cannot be overstated. This woman born as Agnes Gonxha
Bojaxhiu is known to the world as Mother Teresa.
Mother Teresa spent the majority of her life serving others. She focused all of her
attention on the less fortunate, striving to make an impact on many individual lives. The events
in her life’s journey are exemplary of many of the laws in John Maxwell’s book The 21
Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Of these laws, I believe that Mother Teresa’s life best illustrates
The Law of Sacrifice, The Law of Process, and The Law of Legacy.
To achieve what Mother Teresa did in her lifetime, she had to sacrifice many aspects of
her life, beginning at a very young age. When she was around the age of twelve, she started
considering becoming a nun. Being a nun requires one to give up marriage, the chance of having
children, and significant time with one’s family. Mother Teresa dealt with these issues. For
example, she never saw her family again after becoming a nun. Once Mother Teresa left her
mother and siblings at the age of eighteen (though she lived to be eighty-seven), she never laid
eyes on her family again (Rosenberg, “Mother Teresa”). I can only assume that not having the
support of your family at a very young age can be very difficult, yet Mother Teresa was
determined to enter the Sisters of Loreto; she succeeded when she took her vows as a nun in
1931. While in the convent, Mother Teresa was settled in a very safe place. She had a stable
teaching job at the wealthy St. Mary’s High School, yet she decided to sacrifice this stability
when she moved to the slums of Darjeeling, India. Mother Teresa’s calling drove her to serve
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the needy, and this would require much sacrifice. In this case, she sacrificed her stable and safe
home. When she entered the slums she had no income and no way to get food (Rosenberg,
“Mother Teresa”). I believe that through her drive to serve Christ, she survived her first year in
the slums and was able to help the suffering people around her. Furthermore, Mother Teresa had
to sacrifice any and all financial gains. She sacrificed every penny she earned to help open
homes for the sufferers, such as a hospice for the poor, a home for the lepers, and a home for the
orphans and homeless youth (“Mother Teresa and the Nobel Peace Prize”). She chose to
financially help others, rather than herself.
Though Mother Teresa had to sacrifice important aspects of her life, she had a goal to
fulfill. Making this goal a reality would be a process; one that took many steps with obstacles to
overcome. When Mother Teresa first embarked on her calling to help the poor it took a very
long time for her to even step foot in the slums of Darjeeling, India. Mother Teresa needed
permission from Sisters of Loreto to leave the order and from the Archbishop of Calcutta to live
and work among the poor. She petitioned her superiors for permission for around two years. It
took a long period of time because there were many disapproving views. Many thought it was
too dangerous for a single woman to work in the slums. Eventually, she was allowed to leave the
convent for the slums for only one year (Rosenberg, “Mother Teresa”). Even though she was
granted permission, Mother Teresa knew that she must prepare herself in every way possible in
order to effectively help the poor; this in itself was a process. Before entering Darjeeling, she
went to the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna to take nursing classes to obtain some basic medical
knowledge (Rosenberg, “Mother Teresa”). It took a long period of time for Mother Teresa to
physically get to Darjeeling to start her journey. She had to go through another process to create
her own order.
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When first entering the slums, she used her teaching background to start influencing the
lives of young children. She would teach youths how to read and write, show them how to
practice good hygiene, and offer any help she could to surrounding families. A former pupil from
Loreto would later join her in her pursuit to help the poor, and she would soon obtain ten helpers.
At the end of her granted year, she petitioned to form her own order of nuns, the Missionaries of
Charity. (Rosenberg, “Mother Teresa”) Her order’s goal was to form “a congregation dedicated
to caring for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those
people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society, people that have become a
burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.” Her request for this order was granted by
Pope Pius XII and was established on October 7, 1950. (“Mother Teresa and the Nobel Peace
Prize”) From gaining approval to go to Darjeeling, preparing to enter the slums, and starting the
Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa had to go through a process. In each activity she had to
face many obstacles and challenges along to the way fulfill her goals. Some of her goals took
many years and several steps before they could become a reality. Her ultimate goal of helping
the poor and disadvantaged was a process in itself; a lifelong process. This was a lifelong goal
which could not be achieved in one day, or accomplished by a single event. Rather, it required
her to commit her entire life to bettering the lives of others one step at a time; one hungry child,
one unwanted leper, and one poor soul at a time. I am sure she realized that she could not
accomplish these activities overnight, but through time, patience, and determination she was able
to complete these processes and achieve her goals.
Mother Teresa's work has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world. She has
received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971),
the Nehru Prize for her promotion of international peace and understanding (1972), the Balzan
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Prize (1979), the Templeton and Magsaysay awards, and most famously, the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1979 (“Mother Teresa and the Nobel Peace Prize”). These awards will live on as a part of
Mother Teresa’s legacy. When she passed, she was greatly remembered for the positive and
charitable legacy she left behind. There are so many examples that could demonstrate the
positive impact she made. However, I believe that the most influential examples are not the most
famous things she accomplished in her lifetime, but rather they are the small good deeds along
the way. An example I found very touching involves Mother Teresa’s constant concern for the
poor and hungry in India. Every time Mother Teresa would travel by airplane, after the travel
meals were distributed, she would collect all leftover food on the plane. She would then
distribute any food she collected to the hungry individuals in India (“Greenridge Secondary
School: Mother Theresa”).
A more renowned example her legacy occurred in 1979 when she was honored with the
Nobel Peace Prize award. The recipient usually receives a grand banquet to honor them, yet
Mother Teresa refused this honor. She asked the committee to send all of the money that would
have been used for the banquet ($192,000) to India to help the poor (“Mother Teresa and the
Nobel Peace Prize”). The fact that she would give up a party celebrating her accomplishments
and instead help the less fortunate, displays the legacy that Mother Teresa left behind. When she
was around eighty years old, she started suffering heart problems, yet she continued to work.
(Williams, “Mother Teresa's Style of Leadership”) She stated, “My doctors are always telling me
that I must not travel so much, that I must slow down, but I have all eternity to rest and there is
so much still to do. Life is not worth living unless it is lived for others” (Williams, “Mother
Teresa's Style of Leadership”). This quote alone represents that empowering legacy Mother
Teresa has left for the world.
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Mother Teresa influenced many individuals throughout her lifetime. I believe she
succeeded in doing so because of her leadership style. The leadership style that I can associate
Mother Teresa with is that of a transformational leader. According to Bass and Avolio,
“transformational leadership requires trust, concern and facilitation rather than direct
control. The skills required are concerned with establishing a long-term vision, empowering
people to control themselves, coaching, and developing others and challenging the culture to
change.” (1993). Mother Teresa embodies the concept of establishing a long-term vision. An
example of this is when she decided to start schools for unfortunate children in India. When she
first entered the slums, she used her teaching background to help educate young children. With
no classroom, desk, chalkboard, or paper, she had to use what she did have. So she picked up a
stick and starting drawing in the dirt. This began her long-term vision for education. With time
her simple goal of educating young children led to the long-term facilities created today to help
educate the youth in India. (Rosenberg, “Mother Teresa”)
Following vision, a transformational leader needs to empower people to control
themselves. Mother Teresa displayed this aspect of transformational leadership when she started
the Missionaries of Charity. When Mother Teresa first started the order, some of her first
followers were students (wealthy daughters) she taught at St. Mary’s High School. These
wealthy, highly educated individuals did not go into the slums because it was an attractive place
to live. They followed Mother Teresa into the slums because they believed in her vision and
mission (Youssef, “Mother Teresa (1910–1997)”). “She “conceive[d] and articulate[d] goals that
lift[ed] people out of their petty occupations, carr[ied] them above the conflicts that tear a society
apart, and unite[d] them in the pursuit of objectives worthy of their best efforts”(Bass,207). Her
ability to unite these people, allowed her to empower others to control themselves; giving others
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the ability to help the poor without her direct control. Lastly, a transformational leader
challenges the culture to change. Within Mother Teresa’s time in the slums of India, she began
to change the way nuns in the Missionaries of Charity “saw themselves and their mission on
earth.” Traditionally, the order of nuns focused on continuous prayer rather than action. Mother
Teresa changed the tradition and focused her organization on being proactive in the community,
specifically helping the unfortunate and unwanted in the slums of India. (Breckler, Olson, and
Wiggins 415)
Mother Teresa impacted the world through her selfless, charitable actions. She is
arguably the most celebrated humanitarian in recent memory. She spent her entire life striving to
help the less fortunate; a goal that would require much dedication, perseverance, and leadership.
Through her transformational leadership style, she influenced others to follow her mission to
serve the destitute and deprived. Throughout her life’s work to aid others she led by example.
Her actions of charity portray many of Maxwell’s laws of leadership, like the Law of Sacrifice,
Process, and Legacy. As a determined and benevolent leader she was able to impact countless
lives and leave a lasting impression on the world.
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Works Cited
Abrams, Irwin, ed. "Peace 1971-1980." Nobel Lectures. Ed. Tore Frängsmyr. Singapore: World
Scientific, 1997. N. pag. Print.
Bass, B. M. (1990). Bass and Stodgill's handbook of leadership: Theory, research, and
managerial applications(3rd ed.). New York: Free Press.
Bass, B. M., Avolio, B.J.(1993). Transformational leadership: A response to critiques. New
York, NY: Free Press.
Breckler, Steven James., James M. Olson, and Elizabeth Corinne Wiggins. "Leadership."Social
Psychology Alive. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2006. 415. Print.
"Greenridge Secondary School: Mother Theresa." Greenridge Secondary School. N.p., n.d. Web.
23 May 2013.
"Mother Teresa and the Nobel Peace Prize." 20 Facts about Mother Teresa. Legacy.com, 17 Oct.
2010. Web. 20 May 2013.
Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Mother Teresa." About.com 20th Century History. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May
2013.
Van Biema, David. "My Take: The Mother Teresa You Don't Know." CNN Belief Blog RSS.
CNN, 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 20 May 2013.
Williams, Joseph I. "Mother Teresa's Style of Leadership." Mother Teresa's Style of Leadership.
Indiana State University, 12 Mar. 2003. Web. 23 May 2013.
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Youssef, Carolyn M. "Mother Teresa (1910–1997)." Encyclopedia of Leadership. Thousand
Oaks: SAGE, 2004. 1033-37. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.