History

The most effective of way in which leaders influence people is by being models themselves. According to the Leadership Practice Inventory, a leader models hisher way by setting an example for others by behaving in ways that are consistent with their stated values. ( HYPERLINK httpwww.concordgrowth.comimagesTLC httpwww.concordgrowth.comimagesTLC).
Martin Luther King rose to the limelight during the civil rights movements in the 60s, as an advocate of an egalitarian American society. What made him stood out than other black leaders who pursued the same cause was his insistence of integration as opposed to separation of the blacks from the whites and, the proposition of the use of non-violence to achieve that goal even in the face of violence that was unleashed on his demonstrators by law enforcers.   
Infusing the Mahatma Gandhis methods of non-violence with the spirituality of the black churches, King in his sermons and writings urged blacks to non-violently disobey laws that transgressed their dignity as human beings. Eventually, this philosophy transformed the social and political relations of both blacks and whites throughout the nation.  ( HYPERLINK httpbooks.google.combooksqinauthor22MariJoBuhle22 Buhle,  HYPERLINK httpbooks.google.combooksqinauthor22MariJoBuhle22 Buhle and Kaye, 1994)
How Martin Luther King Inspired Others
Mwewa (2009), points out that leadership is the art of creating a vision, because a dream or vision invents the future. The Leadership Practice Inventory claims that a leader inspires others by envisioning an uplifting and ennobling future and enlisting others in a common vision by appealing to peoples values, interest, hopes and dreams. ( HYPERLINK httpwww.concordgrowth.comimagesTLC httpwww.concordgrowth.comimagesTLC).
     Martin Luther King was an effective communicator with a pedigree education. He was able to galvanize people through his oratory skills, by clearly communicating the social and political pressures that made blacks second-rate citizens and, was able to inject hope in the whole process. His vision was all encompassing, as best demonstrated in his I Have a Dream speech, where he sees blacks and whites living in harmony at some time in the future. While discouraging the separation of blacks from the larger white American society through the formation of a Negro community in the South, in his speech to social scientists at an APA Annual Convention in Washington, D.C IN 1967, King claimed that the racial problem of America must be solved with all races together, not separately. (APA Monitor, 1999)
Far from that, King was also present to face police brutality alongside other demonstrators on the streets and this connected to people, as they perceived him as ready to die for the cause.
How King Enabled Others to Act
    The Leadership Practice Inventory points out that effective leaders enable their followers to act by strengthening them through the sharing of information and power and, increasing their discretion and visibility. Mwewa (2009), further states that however great a leader may be, heshe never achieves their success by themselves. They must rely on those who must live with the results of their cause, and make it possible for others to do their best. Whenever a leader enables hisher followers to act, they in turn feel strong, capable and committed.
    The preparations of the Montgomery bus boycott, which was triggered by the arrest of Rosa Parks, was organized not by King but the Women Political Council, who later invited him to lead in the demonstrations. Previously, Kings interest was in NAACP, an organization he greatly admired. He even influenced his Dexter Avenue Baptist Church to become its largest contributor. He was also active in human relation organizations that brought a few blacks and white middle class professional together to talk about how to improve race relations. King was a reluctant radical. ( HYPERLINK httpbooks.google.combooksqinauthor22MariJoBuhle22 Buhle,  HYPERLINK httpbooks.google.combooksqinauthor22PaulBuhle22 Buhle, and HYPERLINK httpbooks.google.combooksqinauthor22HarveyJ.Kaye22  Kaye, 1994)
Challenging the Process. Effective leadership consists in seeing challenges as sources of good ideas. An effective leader therefore, harnesses these challenges and seeks for the seeds of growth in them. (Mwewa, 2009)
The greatest resistance faced by the non-violence civil right activism by King was a stubborn American regime that didnt want to change the status quo, and a white majority that whose prejudice was informed more by fear than the knowledge of the black man.
King managed to challenge whites to join blacks in the struggle for justice by telling them that they were caught up they were all caught up in an inescapable mutuality. He too troubled the conscience of the Congress and White House by putting it to them that they could not claim to be leaders of a free world, yet remain a segregated nation. After the Montgomery bus boycott, Kings most successful campaigns were the Birmingham demonstrations in 1963 and the Selma March in 1965. Both events created so much social disruption that the leaders of the federal government were pressured into enacting the Civil Right Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Bill of 1965. ( HYPERLINK httpbooks.google.combooksqinauthor22MariJoBuhle22 Buhle, et al)
How King Encouraged and Convicted the Hearts and Emotions of Others
In order to encourage and convict hearts and emotions of their followers leaders recognize the individual contributions to the success of every of their projects ( HYPERLINK httpwww.concordgrowth.comimagesTLC httpwww.concordgrowth.comimagesTLC). During the Montgomery bus boycott, King recognized the fact that it would take the conviction of individuals to make the demonstration a success. He urged them to stick together and have the moral courage to stand up for their rights. In 381 days, fifty thousand blacks, under his courageous leadership, walked the streets on Montgomery with dignity rather than ride the buses with humiliation. ( HYPERLINK httpbooks.google.combooksqinauthor22MariJoBuhle22 Buhle, et al)
The strategies mentioned herein made Martin Luther successful in his quest to ensuring the attainment of social equality in America, and today he is remembered one of the greatest American for having shaped the conscience, and thus history of America for the better.