Table of contents
 Definition of leadership
 Biography of Mao Zedong
 Mao’s Rise to power
 Significant Events
 Leadership Style
 Judging of effectiveness
Our Definition of
leadership
 A leader is someone who can direct and influence a
group of people to work towards and achieve a
goal.
 A leader will usually first come up with a goal or
vision and will then need to convince his followers
to pursue this common goal.
Criteria of a great
(political)leader
 First, a great leader must be able to hold on to the
support of his people.
 Next a great leader result in a significant change in
his country.
 Lastly, a great leader must result in a deep and
lasting positive impact on both his people and
country
Criteria of a good
(political)leader
 A good leader must be able to empathize with his
followers.
 A good leader must improve the standard of living of
his people.
 A good leader must be morally upright and and
empower his followers.
Biography - An
Introduction (1)
 Appointed as first chairman of the communist party of China
 revived its stagnating economy and culture and extended
his contribution by normalizing its relations with world's
super powers
 led the People's Republic of China from 1949 until his death
in 1976
 laid the foundation for powerful nation through his
effective reforms and many socio-cultural programs
Biography - An
Introduction (2)
 Social-cultural programs such as "Great Leap Forward”
criticized from within China and outside for ruining the
heritage, culture and agriculture of China
 regarded as the one of the most important figures of the
modern World History
 portrayed as a great revolutionary and strategist
 transformed the country into a major power through his
policies
Biography – Early life in China
 born in an affluent Buddhist family of China
 Graduated from the First provincial Normal School of Hunan
in 1918
 registered as a part time student at Beijing University
 engaged himself as much as possible in reading
 During his stay in Beijing, his idea of communism evolved
and matured.
Biography – Political Ideas
 Was from a peasant family
 believed that problems of China could be studied
and resolved only within China
 co-founded the Communist Party of China (CPC)
Biography – Leadership in China
 People’s Republic of China established on 1
October 1949
 Ending the almost two decade’s long civil and
International war
 Chairman of the PRC in 1954 remained till 1959.
 Took over the control of all media to promote the
image of Mao and the party
 Ordered executions as necessary for the ‘securing
the power.’
Biography – Leadership in China
 launched the first Five-Years Plan in 1953 that
aimed to end the Chinese dependence on
agriculture to become a world power
 New industrial plants were built and agricultural
industries began to produce enough capital that
China no longer needed any outside support
 Initiated the Second Five-year Plan, ‘The Great
Leap Forward’ in 1958
 efforts were made to increase the rate of literacy
and to control prices
"The Great Leap forward"
 Second Five-Year Plan, also known as ‘The Great
Leap Forward’
 Focused on heavy industries for economic growth
 small agricultural collectives were merged into far
larger people’s communes
 Peasants were ordered to work on massive
infrastructure projects and all private food
production was banned
 combined by the flood or drought situation in some
areas left peasants nothing to eat resulting into the
largest Famine in the human history
The Cultural Revolution
 Due to failure of the ‘Great Leap Forward’
 feared the prospect of loosing his place at the political
stage, as he had lost esteem among top party leaders
 launched Cultural Revolution in 1966
 continue the armed struggle through young people and
teenagers and give power directly to the Red Group
 led to the destruction of Chinese heritage and
prosecution of millions.
Final Days
 declared the Cultural Revolution to be over
 declining health and lung ailment due to smoking
and heart trouble
 His body lay in the state at the Great hall of the
People
 His body was later placed into Mausoleum of Mao
Zedong
Biography – A Timeline
 1893- Mao Zedong was born on 26
December 1893.
 1949- Establishment of People’s
Republic of China.
 1918- Graduated from Normal
Provincial School.
 1954- Mao became president of PRC.
 1919- Travelled to Beijing.
 1958- Second Five-Year Plan ‘The
Great leap forward’ was launched.
 1921- He co-founded the Communist  1966- Cultural Revolution was
party of China.
launched.
 1927- Conducted Autumn Harvest
Uprising.
 1930- His wife Yang Kaihui was
arrested and killed by KMT.
 1949- Took over the power from the
KMT.
 1976- On 9 September Mao Zedong
passed away.
Characteristics/Leadership
Qualities
 Intelligent
 Methodical
 Possesses
Foresight
 Innovative
 Charismatic
 Ruthless
Intelligent
 Despite not receiving proper education in his early
years, Mao educated himself by reading a variety of
books.
 Despite being born from a peasant family, he
pioneered China’s philosophical and political
ideologies and published a lot theoretical works.
Methodical
 Splendid mass organizer and administrator
 Knows how to go to the masses and organize them to
realize these slogans
 A classical example:
 "On the Rectification of Incorrect Ideas in the Party", dealing
with such errors as "the purely military viewpoint, extreme
democratization, non-organizational viewpoint, absolute
equalitarianism, subjectivism, adventurism, etc."
Possesses Foresight
 Mao was born in a turbulent time where China was
dubbed “the sick man in asia” and constantly
suppressed by the Japanese and Western countries
 Despite these adversities, Mao foresaw a China
modelled by Marxist Communism to regain its
international dominance.
Innovative
 Ideas about class warfare
 Developed his own version of Marxist Communism,
also known as Maoism.
 seemingly impossible for anyone to conjure the idea
of turning against his own class, subjecting them to
humiliating struggle and taking away their property
 some have dubbed Mao as “the dreamer”
Charismatic
 Mao was very charismatic to the Chinese people as
he was seen to be a visionary and appealing to the
peasants.
 People hailed Mao as the Great Leader Chairman and
National Hero.
 Even today, some people regard Mao as the saviour
of the people and a god-like figure.
Ruthless
 Would do anything to consolidate his power and realise his
vision for China.
 Very strict about media censorship, preventing publications
of any media anti-communism and promoting capitalism
 During the 'Hundred Flowers Campaign‘, Mao invited
suggestions and opinions from party members about how
China should be governed.
 It was said that Mao used this policy as a method of
identifying and subsequently prosecuting his enemies.
Mao’s Leadership Style
 Mao Zedong practiced the leadership style of
transformational leadership.
 Transformational leaders aims to achieve a positive
change from the current situation with a vision in
mind and are generally more task-oriented than
people-oriented.
Mao’s Leadership Style
 Transformational leaders are usually motivated by
their vision or goal rather than to service and
empower their people.
 Transformational leaders are also usually more
concerned about the achieved result than the
development of his followers in the process
Mao’s Leadership Style
 Mao is a typical Transformational leader.
 This is evident from how he desired to achieve his
goal and visions for China despite the
sacrifices.(Loss of millions of lives)
 The Cultural Revolution, inspired by his vision of a
China that would be in “perpetual revolution” was
carried despite the heavy prices of the destruction of
heritage and loss of lives.
Mao’s Leadership Style
 Comparison between characteristics of
Transformational leaders and Servant leaders.
Characteristics of Servant
Leaders
Characteristics of Transformational
Leaders
More People Oriented
More Task Oriented
Process Oriented
Result Oriented
Believes in empowering and
enabling others
Believes in doing what is most
efficient for the result
Common Interest in the people
Common Interest in the organization
Are value and character driven
Are goal and profit driven
Is Mao a great leader?
 We believe that Mao is an great
leader.
 Mao has fulfilled the first criteria
of maintaining support of his
people. During his reign, Mao
was greatly supported by his
followers and hailed as the
“Great Leader”. Mao was
named a national hero after his
death and even today, some see
him like a god-like figure and
the saviour of the people.
Is Mao a great leader?
 Next, Mao has also fulfilled the second criteria as he
has indeed resulted in a significant change to China.
Mao was known as the architect of modern China
and his successes in the war against KuoMingTang
and his various policies(E.g. The Great Leap
Forward) has significantly shaped China.
 Lastly, Mao have fulfilled the third criteria of having
deep and lasting impacts on China. It was Mao’s
policies that laid the grounds in China that made
China’s current successes possible and Mao’s
political ideology and philosophies continues to
shape China and the way its citizens think.
Is Mao a good leader?
 Our group believes that despite Mao’s significant
impact on China, He is not a good leader.
 This is because although Mao’s leadership has
transformed China into a independent and powerful
nation and laid the important foundations to China’s
success, he does not possess the traits of a good
leader. Furthermore, Mao’s actions has led to
tremendous damage and the lost of millions of lives
in China.
Is Mao a good leader?
 First, Mao does not possess any of the qualities of a
good leader.
 Mao showed no empathy towards his citizens and all
of his actions are motivated by his own visions. This
is evident from the Great Leap Forward, where
widespread famine resulting in death occurred in
China.
 The Cultural Revolution reached resulted in huge
damages to China was also based on his sole vision
without understanding the needs of the Chinese.
Is Mao a good leader?
 Most importantly, Mao is not a good leader because of
the damage he caused.
 Mao’s policies have resulted in the huge loss of human
lives. For example, in the cultural revolution, millions of
intellectuals were persecuted and killed just for Mao’s
consolidation of power.
 In the consolidation of power, Mao was well known for
sabotaging and executing political rivals. Deng Xiaoping
was one of Mao’s rivals who survived the persecution.
 Its is estimated that 50 - 80 Million people lost their lives
as a result of Mao’s actions.
Blibliography
 http://www.marxists.org/archive/foster/1955/historythree-internationals/mao.htm
 http://famousrelationships.topsynergy.com/Mao_Zedong
/Characteristics.asp
 http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employeedevelopment-leadership/706051-1.html
 http://history.culturalchina.com/en/46H9449H13450.html
 http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/mao-zedong56.php
 http://www.famous-quotes.com/author.php?aid=7936