In my last instalment, I looked at the servant leadership style. This week I will switch on to another leadership style that has proved to be successful in modern-day leadership.
HR Talk with Paul Nyausaru
As you read through the article, ask yourself if you are the kind of leader who is transformational in approach.
Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that causes change in individuals and social systems. It creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders.
Enacted in its authentic form, transformational leadership enhances the motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms.
These mechanisms include connecting the follower’s sense of identity and self to the mission and the collective identity of the organisation, being a role model for followers that inspires them challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, so that the leader can align followers with tasks that optimise their performance.
James MacGregor Burns (1978) first introduced the concept of transforming leadership in his descriptive research on political leaders, but this term is now widely used in organisational psychology as well.
According to Burns, transforming leadership is a process in which “leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation”. He related to the difficulty in differentiation between management and leadership and claimed that the differences are in characteristics and behaviours.
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There are four components of transformational leadership, sometimes referred to as the 4 I’s which are:
Idealised influence (II) – In this component, the leader serves as an ideal role model for followers; s/he “walks the talk,” and is admired for this.
Inspirational motivation (IM) – Transformational leaders have the ability to inspire and motivate followers. When these two components are combined, they constitute the transformational leader’s charisma.
Individualised 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.
Research evidence, however, clearly shows that groups led by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders.
Why is this so? It is because transformational leaders 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 and, lastly, transformational leaders focus on and care about followers and their personal needs and development.
