Transformational Leadership : Transformational Leaders

There are many components to being a leader; a strong leader has to be able to clearly communicate, to intensely inspire others to collaborate in bringing the vision to fruition. James MacGregor Burns a leadership expert introduced the transformational leadership concept he suggested that “the transforming leader as one with the ability to create visions and employ charismatic behaviors, they are purposeful and seek to understand the motivation and needs of their followers (Crowell, 2016). Not only does a transformational leader have the ability to empower and motivate others “transformational leadership emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships, and the goal is to generate employee’s commitment to the vision or ideal rather than to themselves” (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). According to Smith, (2011) the ultimate goal of transformational leadership is the leader and the follower to discover meaning and purpose in relation to their work, in addition to growth and maturity. There are four I's of transformational leadership " individualized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration, and intellectual stimulation" (Riggio, 2014). The transformational leader causes changes in both the system and the individual. Creating positive and valuable changes in the followers with the result creating followers who will

Those that follow a transformational leadership framework believe that leaders possess many of the aforementioned qualities, but the focus is on one’s ability to inspire and empower others (Ross, Fitzpatrick, Click, Krouse, & Clavelle, 2014). These leaders literally ‘transform’ their followers by inspiring enthusiasm and performance towards a

Becoming a transformational leader can occur either because the leader has a model or mentor that is a transformational leader, because he/she is a born transformational leader, or through reflection. Senge (1990) wrote that “Learning through reflection is about finding the creative tension...between an understanding of current reality and a vision of desirable practice” (as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 24). In addition, Schuster (1994) noted that one who desires to become a transformational leader can cultivate certain qualities that are characteristic of such a leader: a stimulating vision for the organization, honesty, empathy, authenticity, the ability to defer self-interest to ensure that others are recognized, a holistic concern for the organization, the ability to share power with others, and the ability to develop others (as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 25). The transformational leader is also an effective communicator who persists during hard times and still has the courage to continue to move ahead even when fatigued and encountering difficulties (Schuster, 1994, as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 25).

The transformational leader needs to direct people towards where they want to go and where they need to be in order to achieve the vision (Luzinski, 2011, p. 501). According to Luzinski (2011), success occurs when followers and leaders learn from each other, coming to a common understanding and establishing shared values, not because followers dutifully agree to listen (p. 502). Successful transformational leadership has four components: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration.

Transformational leaders provide a sense of vision and mission, they have the capability to inspire through communication of high expectations, stimulate the use of intelligence for problem solving, and provide personal attention and coaching for followers. This type of leadership is concerned with emotions, values ethics, standards and long term goals (p.185). “Charismatic leaders act in unique ways that have specific charismatic effects on their followers”(p.188). Charismatic leaders are strong role models for the beliefs and values they want their followers to adopt.

Transformational leadership needs to be fostered at all levels in the firm. In order to succeed, the firm needs to have the flexibility to forecast and meet new demands and changes as they occur —and only transformational leadership can enable the firm to do so (Bass, 1990, p. 31).

Intellectual stimulation encourages followers to challenge processes and the status quo (Alyn, n.d.). They are equipped to do this through training and other tools required through the problem-solving process (Alyn, n.d.). This empowers the individual to make decisions on their own. This skill is particularly important for firefighters who may not have the luxury to turn to a leader during critical moments of incident response. Lastly, inspirational motivation is the degree to which a leader articulates a vision that is appealing to subordinates and inspires them in a positive way about future goals, and tasks (Ifeanyi and Odumeru, 2013).

In order to be authentic the transformational leader needs to be an ethical moral agent. “A leader is praiseworthy as a moral agent if he or she possesses a developed conscience and acts in ways that are kind, charitable and altruistic rather than selfish or maleficent.” (wright.edu). The authentic leader tends to complete actions which are best for the followers. Leaders actions should be judged based on the ends sought, means used, and the consequences achieved.

Transformational leaders’ focus is on the relationship of the leader with subordinates through encouragement, understanding, enthusiasm, and spur, while considering the individual. The leader motivates, possesses

During the past three decades, transformational leadership has helped to transform the workforce. The need for this type of inspirational style was recognized and explored in an original work called Leadership by James Macgregor Burns (1978). Burns believed that transformational leadership was a collaborative process that served to raise the morals and motivations of everyone involved (Leadership, 1978, 19). This type of leader works to inspire others with a goal or plan for the future. According the Marquis and Huston (2015) one of the key aspects of this style is the ability to empower others

Transformational leaders poses a variety of skills that “motivates followers to do more than expected, by (a) raising followers’ levels of consciousness about the importance and value of specified and idealized goals, (b) getting followers to transcend their own self-interest for the sake of the team or organization, and (c) moving followers to address higher level needs” (Northouse, 2013, p. 190). Besides having specific skills to motivate followers, transformational leaders possess dominant personalities, have a desire to influence others, are self-confident, have high moral values and exhibit charismatic behavior (Northouse, 2013).

The transformational leadership theories first arose late in the past millennium when existential factors caused different organizations to re-invent and establish themselves. Many of such attempts deemed to result in widespread failure, however; those who actually succeeded in transforming these structures received great attention for their efforts. Transformational leaders are individuals who possess an innate ability to create changes in the audience’s thinking, thereby, creating a shift in their behavior as well. It is a process in which the leader attends to the needs of their followers so that the interaction raises each to high levels

Inspirational motivation is the second of the “Four I’s”, Inspirational motivation is the ability to transformational leadership, which qualifies a leader as a figure, which inspires and motivates the followers to appropriate behavior (Vargas, 2015). The third one is intellectual stimulation.

Transformational leaders are able to inspire employees to work towards a common goal by changing their expectations, motivation and perception of why they are doing the work. Transformational leaders cultivate a commitment from their employees, which encourages them to put aside self-interest to work

A TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER is a person who stimulates and inspires followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes (Robbins, 2007)It has been shown to influence organisational members by transforming their values and priorities while motivating them to perform beyond their expectations (Rowold, 2007)Increased levels of job satisfaction & reduced turnover intentions are consequences of transformational leadership. It is all about leadership that creates positive change in the followers whereby they take care of each other’s interests and act in the interestsof the groupas a whole (Warrilow, 2012)