TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these
leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every member of
the group succeed as well.

Material 1

Transformational Leadership
Becoming an Inspirational Leader
What is Transformational Leadership?
Leadership expert James McGregor Burns introduced the concept of transformational leadership
in his 1978 book, "Leadership." He defined transformational leadership as a process where
"leaders and their followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation."
Bernard M. Bass later developed the concept of transformational leadership further. According
his 1985 book, "Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations," this kind of leader:

Is a model of integrity and fairness.

Sets clear goals.

Has high expectations.

Encourages others.

Provides support and recognition.

Stirs the emotions of people.

Gets people to look beyond their self-interest.

Inspires people to reach for the improbable.

How to Become a Transformational Leader

We've distilled Bass' ideas into a process that you can use to become a transformational leader.
This involves you:
1. Creating an inspiring vision of the future.

2. Motivating people to buy into and deliver the vision.

3. Managing delivery of the vision.
4. Building ever-stronger, trust-based relationships with your people.

Use these steps, along with the tools we outline below, to develop your transformational
leadership skills.
Step 1: Create an Inspiring Vision

People need a compelling reason to follow your lead, and this is why you need to create
and communicate an inspiring vision of the future.
Your vision sets out your team or organization's purpose

why you all get up in the

morning to do what you do. You develop this partly by understanding the values

of

the people you lead, partly by understanding the capabilities

of

and resources

your organization, and partly by conducting an intelligent analysis of your environment,

and selecting the best way forward within it.
Step 2: Motivate People to Buy Into and Deliver the Vision

Now, starting with your mission statement

values

, you need to appeal to your people's

, and inspire them with where you're going to lead them, and why.

Use business storytelling

as part of your call to action: this will help people

appreciate the positive impact of your vision on the people you're trying to help. (Hint: if
the only person you're trying to help is yourself, you won't inspire anyone.)
Then, talk about your vision often. Link it to people's goals and tasks to give it context,
and help people see how they can contribute to it.
Transformational leaders also know that nothing significant happens unless they
encourage their people. So, make sure that you know about the different kinds of
motivation
, and use these to inspire your people to deliver their best.
Step 3: Manage Delivery of the Vision

A vision is no use on its own: it needs to become reality. However, many leaders make
the mistake of developing a vision, but of not putting in the hard and often mundane work
of delivering it.

To manage the delivery of your vision, you'll need to combine effective project
management with sensitive change management
. This will help you deliver the
changes you need with the full support of your people. Communicate each person's roles
and responsibilities clearly, and connect these to your plans. Everyone should fully
understand what they're responsible for, and know how you will measure their success.
Next, set clear, SMART
goals for everyone, including some short-term goals that
will help people achieve quick wins and stay motivated. Use management by objectives
to link short-term achievement to your longer-term goals.
You may need to build your self-discipline

and stamina, so that you don't let

yourself down. And, set a good example to your people especially if they're affected by
delays or difficulties by being a model of hard work and persistence.

Step 4: Build Ever-Stronger, Trust-Based Relationships With Your

People

As a transformational leader, you need to focus your attention on your people, and work
hard to help them achieve their goals and dreams.
It also underlines the fact that leadership is a long-term process, and that, as a leader, you
need to work constantly to build relationships, earn trust, and help your people grow as
individuals.
Meet your people individually to understand their developmental needs

, and help

them to meet their career goals. What do they want to achieve in their role? Where do
they see themselves five years from now? How can you help them reach this goal?
You can build trust
Use the Johari Window

with your people by being open and honest in your interactions.

to disclose safe personal information

about yourself,

and to get a better understanding of "what makes your people tick."

Lastly, set aside time to coach

your people. When you help them find their own

solutions, you not only create a skilled team, but you also strengthen their self-confidence
and their trust in you.

Also, stay visible by practicing management by walking around

. This is an ideal

technique for transformational leaders, because it helps you stay connected with daily
activities, and allows you to answer questions as they arise.

..

Material 2
Transformational leadership is a style of leadership where the leader collaborates with
employees to identify the needed change, creating a vision to guide the change through
inspiration, and executing the change in tandem with committed members of the group. It also
serves to enhance the motivation, morale, and job performance of followers through a variety of
mechanisms; these include connecting the follower's sense of identity and self to the project and
the collective identity of the organization; being a role model for followers in order to inspire
them and raise their interest in the project; challenging followers to take greater ownership for
their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, allowing the leader to
align followers with tasks that enhance their performance. Former President Franklin Roosevelt
was regarded as a Transformational Leader.
ORIGINS
The concept of transformational leadership was initially introduced by leadership expert and
presidential biographer James MacGregor Burns. According to Burns, transformational
leadership can be seen when "leaders and followers make each other advance to a higher level of
morality and motivation."Through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational
leaders are able to inspire followers to change expectations, perceptions, and motivations to work
towards common goals. Unlike in the transactional approach, it is not based on a "give and take"
relationship, but on the leader's personality, traits and ability to make a change through example,
articulation of an energizing vision and challenging goals. Transforming leaders are idealized in
the sense that they are a moral exemplar of working towards the benefit of the team, organization
and/or community. Burns theorized that transforming and transactional leadership were mutually
exclusive styles. Later, researcher Bernard M. Bass expanded upon Burns' original ideas to
develop what is today referred to as Bass Transformational Leadership Theory. According to
Bass, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers.
Transformational leaders, Bass suggested, garner trust, respect, and admiration from their
followers.
Bernard M. Bass (1985), extended the work of Burns (1978) by explaining the psychological
mechanisms that underlie transforming and transactional leadership. Bass introduced the term
"transformational" in place of "transforming." Bass added to the initial concepts of Burns (1978)
to help explain how transformational leadership could be measured, as well as how it impacts

follower motivation and performance. The extent to which a leader is transformational, is

measured first, in terms of his influence on the followers. The followers of such a leader feel
trust, admiration, loyalty and respect for the leader and because of the qualities of the
transformational leader are willing to work harder than originally expected. These outcomes
occur because the transformational leader offers followers something more than just working for
self-gain; they provide followers with an inspiring mission and vision and give them an identity.
The leader transforms and motivates followers through his or her idealized influence (earlier
referred to as charisma), intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. In addition, this
leader encourages followers to come up with new and unique ways to challenge the status quo
and to alter the environment to support being successful. Finally, in contrast to Burns, Bass
suggested that leadership can simultaneously display both transformational and transactional
leadership.
DEFINITIONS
According to Bass,transformational leadership encompasses several different aspects, including:

Emphasizing intrinsic motivation and positive development of followers

Raising awareness of moral standards

Highlighting important priorities

Fostering higher moral maturity in followers

Creating an ethical climate (share values, high ethical standards)

Encouraging followers to look beyond self-interests to the common good

Promoting cooperation and harmony

Using authentic, consistent means

Using persuasive appeals based on reason

Providing individual coaching and mentoring for followers

Appealing to the ideals of followers

Allowing freedom of choice for followers

Transformational leaders are described to hold positive expectations for followers, believing that
they can do their best. As a result, they inspire, empower, and stimulate followers to exceed

normal levels of performance. Transformational leaders also focus on and care about followers
and their personal needs and development.Transformational leaders fit well in leading and
working with complex work groups and organizations, where beyond seeking an inspirational
leader to help guide them through an uncertain environment, followers are also challenged and
feel empowered; this nurtures them into becoming loyal, high performers.
There are 4 components to transformational leadership, sometimes referred to as the 4 I's:

Idealized Influence (II) - the leader serves as an ideal role model for followers; the
leader "walks the talk," and is admired for this.

Inspirational Motivation (IM) - Transformational leaders have the ability to inspire and
motivate followers. Combined these first two I's are what constitute the transformational
leader's charisma.

Individualized Consideration (IC) - Transformational leaders demonstrate genuine

concern for the needs and feelings of followers. This personal attention to each follower
is a key element in bringing out their very best efforts.

Intellectual Stimulation (IS) - the leader challenges followers to be innovative and

creative. A common misunderstanding is that transformational leaders are "soft," but the
truth is that they constantly challenge followers to higher levels of performance.[7]

Transformational leadership is said to have occurred when engagement in a group results in

leaders and followers raising one another to increased levels of motivation and morality.
CHARACTERISTICS
Five major personality traits have been identified as factors contributing to the likelihood of an
individual displaying the characteristics of a transformational leader. Different emphasis on
different elements of these traits point to inclination in personality to inspirational leadership,
transactional leadership, and transformational leadership. These five traits are as follows:
Extraversion
The two main characteristics of extraverts are affiliation and agency, which relate to the social
and leadership aspects of their personality, respectively. Extraversion is generally seen as an
inspirational trait usually exhibited in transformational leadership.
Neuroticism
Neuroticism generally gives an individual an anxiety related to productivity which, in a group
setting can be debilitating to a degree where they are unlikely to position themselves in a role of
transformational leadership due to lower self-esteem and a tendency to shirk from leadership
responsibilities.

Openness to experience
Creative expression and emotional responsiveness have been linked to a general tendency of
openness to experience.This trait is also seen as a component of transformational leadership as it
relates to the ability to give big-picture visionary leadership for an organization.
Agreeableness
Although not a trait which specifically points to transformational leadership, leaders in general
possess an agreeable nature stemming from a natural concern for others and high levels of
individual consideration. Charisma and idealized influence is a classic ability of individuals who
possess agreeability.
Conscientiousness
Strong sense of direction and the ability to put large amounts of productive work into tasks is the
by-product of conscientious leaders. This trait is more linked to a transactional form of
leadership given the management-based abilities of such individuals and the detail oriented
nature of their personality.

EFFECTIVENESS AS COMPARED TO OTHER LEADERSHIP STYLES

Studies have shown that transformational leadership styles are associated with positive outcomes
in relation to other leadership styles. According to studies performed by Lowe, Kroeck, and
Sivasubramaniam, charisma (or Idealized Influence) was found to be a variable that was most
strongly related to leader effectiveness among MLQ scales. Other studies show that
transformational leadership is positively associated with employee outcomes including
commitment, role clarity, and well-being.
1.Transactional leadership

In contrast to transformational leadership, transactional leadership styles focus on the use of

rewards and punishments in order to achieve compliance from followers. Transformational
leaders look towards changing the future to inspire followers and accomplish goals, whereas
transactional leaders seek to maintain the status quo, not aiming for progress.
The MLQ does test for some transactional leadership elements - Contingent Reward and
Management-by-Exception - and these results for these elements are often compared to those of
the transformational elements that the MLQ tests for. Studies have shown transformational
leadership practices lead to higher satisfaction with leader among followers and greater leader
effectiveness, while transactional practices lead to higher follower job satisfaction and leader job
performance

2.Laissez-faire leadership

In a laissez-faire leadership style, a person may be given a leadership position without providing
leadership, which leaves followers to fend for themselves. This leads to subordinates having a
free hand in deciding policies and methods.
Studies have shown that while transformational leadership styles are associated with positive
outcomes, laissez-faire leadership is associated with negative outcomes, especially in terms of
follower satisfaction with leader and leader effectiveness. Also, other studies comparing the
leadership styles of men and women have shown that female leaders tend to be more
transformational with their leadership styles, whereas laissez-faire leadership is more prevalent
in male leaders.

EXAMPLES
Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela used transformational leadership principles while working to abolish apartheid
and enforce change in South Africa. In 1995, he visited Betsie Verwoerd, the widow of the
architect of apartheid Hendrik Verwoerd, at her home in Orania. Orania was an Afrikaner
homeland and a striking anachronistic symbol of racial separation, and Mandela's recurring
emphasis on forgiveness contributed toward the healing the prejudices of South Africa and as
vast influence as a leader. In 2000, he was quoted as saying, "For all people who have found
themselves in the position of being in jail and trying to transform society, forgiveness is natural
because you have no time to be retaliative."
Abraham

Abraham used transformational leadership to spread the roots of religion. Jzsef

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There are also numerous examples from the Bible of Abraham, the biblical patriarch, using
transformational leadership principles to destroy paganism and spread the roots for Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. He mobilized his small clan and waged war with four powerful kings
(Genesis 14) in order to rescue his nephew Lot, showing the courage to take risks and confidence

to carry out visions. He cared a lot about people, often inviting strangers into his home and
caring for them, providing food and drink (Genesis 18). Abraham also firmly believed in justice
for all, and haggled with God to save Sodom and Gomorra from destruction:
Abraham: 'What if there are 50 innocent people in the city? Will you still destroy it?'
God: 'If I find 50 innocent people in Sodom, I will spare the entire area.'
Abraham: 'Suppose there are 45?'
God: 'I will not destroy it if I find 45.'
Abraham: 'What if there are 40?'
God: 'I will not act if there are 40.'"
"Genesis18:20-33"

Abraham was also willing to make sacrifices for his beliefs, and the story about God asking him
to sacrifice his son Isaac indicated his willingness to make a personal sacrifice for God in
Genesis 22. This trial for Abraham may have been God's way of indicating to Abraham that
spreading monotheism would require much sacrifice on the part of believers, and
transformational leaders must be willing to make sacrifices on behalf of an organization.