Understanding Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is one of the reasons many organizations have flourished in this rapidly growing, and highly technological workforce. Transformational leadership is a management philosophy that encourages and inspires employees to innovate and develop new ways to grow and improve the path to a company’s future success. Using this method, executives give trusted employees the independence to make decisions and support new problem-solving approaches.

Well, in this article, we’ll be discussing the following questions;

• What is transformational leadership?
• Why is transformational leadership important?
• What are the elements of transformational leadership?
• What are the characteristics of transformational leadership?

So, let’s begin!

What is transformational leadership?

Transformational leadership is a leadership approach that causes change in individuals and social systems. In its ideal form, it creates valuable and positive change in the followers, with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. Over the last ten years, researchers have focused on transformational leadership as an effective leadership strategy to implement within public and private sector organizations.

James MacGregor Burns (1978) first brought up the concept of transforming leadership in his research on political leaders, but this term is now popularly used in organizational psychology as well. According to James, transforming leadership is a process in which “leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation.”. James related to the difficulty in differentiating between management and leadership and claimed that the differences are in characteristics and behaviors. Today’s examples are:

• Jeff Bezos.
• Steve Jobs.
• Elon Musk.

Why is transformational leadership important?

Under transformational leadership, a transformational leader gives importance to understanding what motivates each employee and helps them focus on the company’s future goals. Transformational leadership inspires actions and habits designed to help an organization over long-term periods, while some may benefit from an individual leader who offers short-term results. Thus, the transformational leadership method has gained popularity because it can be a win-win situation for both the leader and the organization.

Rather than a strict leadership approach, transformational leaders practice team building and encourage coaching.  Boosting confidence in employees’ ability to succeed and learn from past and present failures better prepares organizations for unexpected changes, such as reorganization or downsizing.

What are the elements of transformational leadership?

For those planning on using the transformational leadership method in their organization, or to gain more knowledge in the field, there are four elements of transformational leadership, also known as the four I’s, which will be discussed below;

• Individualized consideration.
• Intellectual stimulations.
• Idealized influence.
• Inspirational motivation.

Individual consideration

This refers to the situation where the managers act as coaches and advisors to the followers.  The leader gives empathy and support, keeps communication open, and places challenges before the followers. This also includes the need for respect and appreciation for the individual contribution that each follower can make to the team, whether big or small. The leader gives empathy and support, keeps communication open, and places challenges before the followers. This also includes the need for respect and appreciation for the individual contribution that each follower can make to the team, whether big or small.

Intellectual stimulations

This refers to the situation where managers encourage innovation and creativity by challenging the normal beliefs or views of their followers. Leaders who use this method stimulate and encourage creativity in their followers. They foster and develop people who think independently. For such a leader, learning is absolutely necessary, and unexpected situations are seen as opportunities to learn and advance further.

Idealized influence

This refers to the situation where managers become exemplary role models that instill pride, ethical behaviors, respect, and trust in their followers while also gaining respect and trust from them. As a development tool, transformational leadership has already expanded in all sectors of Western government as well as governmental organizations.

Inspirational motivation

This refers to the situation where managers persuade their followers by inspiring and appealing to them to commit to the vision and goal of the organization. Leaders with inspirational motivation challenge followers with high standards and confidence, communicate positively about future goals, and provide meaning for the task at hand.

Followers need to have a sense of purpose if they are to be motivated to act. Purpose and meaning give the energy that drives a group forward. The ambitious aspects of leadership are supported by positive communication skills that make the goals understandable, straightforward, powerful, and engaging.

What are the characteristics of transformational leadership?

Transformational leaders have a peculiar trait that, in the right scenario, develops on and persists with one another to create an effective leadership approach. The following are the characteristics of transformational leadership:

• Adaptability.
• Accepting change.
• Emotional intelligence.
• Inspirational team player.
• Humility.

Adaptability

Transformational leaders in information technology (IT) can deal with rapidly growing industry change and deploy the expected technologies. They also know the implications of how these changes will affect other technologies, expecting problems before they arise.

Accepting change

Transformational leaders accept change and anticipate the outcome it will have on an organization, so they are ready to handle challenges.

Emotional intelligence

A readiness to collaborate, empathy, and emotional intelligence are key characteristics of transformational leaders. In practice, they are self-motivated, resilient, and able to build trust and respect from those around them.

Inspirational team player

Transformational leaders concentrate on the company as well as the well-being of the employees instead of taking a selfish approach. When the team succeeds, they celebrate as a team and give credit where credit is to be expected.

Humility

Transformational leaders have little to no problem admitting they don’t have all the answers. While they can remain confident in their goals and abilities, they’re also able to keep their pride in check and perform what’s best for their team or organization.

That’s all for this article, where we discussed the following:

• What is transformational leadership?
• Why is transformational leadership important?
• What are the elements of transformational leadership?
• What are the characteristics of transformational leadership?

Hope it was helpful, if so, kindly share. Thanks for reading.