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Introduction . Lao Tzu Once Said “To Lead People, Walk

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Introduction Lao Tzu once said “to lead people, walk behind them.” Although, successful leadership may come in many different forms, I agree with Lao that the most successful leaders have the ability to lead from behind. This style of leadership may also be called transformational leadership. Transformational leaders have the ability to change and empower their team to achieve, grow, and act exceptionally. One of the most successful transformational leaders I have worked with is my current boss at the YMCA, Nicole Manus. Nicole is 44 years old, and has been working at the YMCA since March 2000. After finishing graduate school at Arizona State University, Nicole began working with special populations at the YMCA. Her current work includes …show more content…

Idealized influence does this by providing the leader an opportunity to lead by example (Dunbar & Winston, 2009). Inspirational motivation allows the leader to become engaged and promote the achievement of organizational goals. The leader does this by inspiring and motivating the team to contribute. Inspirational motivation also gives the leader an opportunity access follower well being (Dunbar & Winston, 2009). Intellectual stimulation allows the leader to encourage problem solving, idea generation, and solution finding for the betterment of the team (Dunbar & Winston, 2009). Finally, individual consideration allows the leader to identify strengths of followers and delegate organizational tasks based on skills and talents. This also provides the leader with an opportunity to increase followers self efficacy, by delegating tasks to help develop or increase a followers skills (Dunbar & Winston, 2009).
Compare and Contrast As previously stated, I believe Nicole successfully and consistently demonstrates the traits of a transformational leader. Although I have had the privilege to work alongside Nicole for over a year, I was largely unaware of the amount of transformational leadership qualities Nicole possesses. Through our interview, I was able to gain a better understanding of Nicole’s leadership philosophy and its relation to transformational leadership theory. The

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