Transformational leadership is a style of leadership which allows leaders and followers to raise each other to higher levels of morality and motivation. First pioneered by James MacGregor Burns, later expanded upon by Bernard Bass.
Authenticity is at the core of this leadership style. It encourages team members to express themselves freely and explore their creativity, leading to more dynamic and innovative workforce environments.
1. Vision
Transformational leadership involves encouraging group members to see themselves as co-owners of the organization, and not being afraid of giving team members more responsibilities. Leaders also create opportunities for individuals to improve their performance which contributes to overall company goals.
Burns contends that these leadership traits distinguish transformational leadership from transactional leadership. Transactional leaders focus on producing business results while transformational leaders strive to promote personal development among team members and bring about social change through transformational approaches such as mentoring or inspiring people through moral character demonstration or noble ethos demonstration. Gandhi, Castro and Stalin would represent transformational types while Hitler and Stalin would represent transactional ones.
While this leadership style provides team members with a sense of ownership, it requires leaders to be mindful of individual needs and beliefs as well as create a shared vision that helps individuals meet their goals while increasing morale and satisfaction.
Transformational leaders must listen carefully when their team members offer ideas, rather than criticize them immediately. Criticizing or dismissing ideas too quickly could create an atmosphere of mistrust or hurtfulness among team members, while being open-minded about how different individuals solve problems or brainstorm in order to meet a shared goal.
2. Purpose
Transformational leadership differs from transactional in that its focus is not solely on power acquisition; rather, they seek to use their position to uphold followers. By so doing, transforming leaders are able to serve both as agents for change and examples of ideals within their organizations; furthermore, this fosters an atmosphere that allows independence and personal growth within them.
Leaders operating from this perspective recognize that motivation varies across employees. To best meet each of their employees’ individual needs and concerns, these managers offer personalized attention with every interaction, creating a unified vision to motivate team members beyond their normal levels of performance.
These leaders are also open to exploring novel ideas and approaches, even when change may be uncomfortable and unfamiliar. They take risks knowing that risk-taking may yield greater returns than traditional management tactics.
Burns highlights transformational leadership as being defined by its focus on interplay between motivations and values, according to him. A basic ethical system sets apart these transformative leaders from those who simply seek power for power’s own sake; such as Gandhi or Castro who seek moral leadership rather than power driven by ego. Burns examines this trait in his book “Leadership is Power”, where he explores leaders like Moses, Machiavelli, Franklin D. Roosevelt as examples of transformational leaders.
3. Morality
An expanded definition of morality must take account of context and outcomes when making moral judgments, for example a person breaking the law to save someone’s life would likely be seen as moral by themselves, while may be considered immoral by society at large. Therefore it’s crucial that individuals examine what motivates their decisions regarding morality as these can change over time.
Morality as an umbrella term takes into account whether an action meets human biological needs, so child care could be considered moral according to this broader definition of the concept. A person’s biology could determine that having children is natural and desirable; so practicing child care would likely be considered moral. However, having children could become impossible if doing so would jeopardize employment opportunities or the respect of close relatives; in such an instance, decisions regarding childbearing would likely be made with financial security in mind rather than altruism as the motivation.
Culture, religion and beliefs of an individual’s upbringing also play a part in their morality. Contraception may be considered immoral in certain regions and cultures while elsewhere it’s seen as ethical because it helps prevent unplanned pregnancy and manage population growth.
4. Motivation
Transformational leadership provides employees with an extra motivating force and encourages people to reach their full potential. Transformational leaders unite their teams in common goals and inspire employees to think beyond their roles within an organization or company. Transformational leaders also promote strong moral purposes that foster loyalty and commitment among their workers.
These types of leaders foster team members’ creativity by encouraging them to use their imagination, develop new skills and share new ideas. These leaders take the time to get to know the individual needs of every employee so they can help them meet both personal goals as well as business objectives. Furthermore, these leaders ensure an environment in which employees feel free to express themselves freely.
Transformational leaders differ from transactional ones in that they do not attempt to control others and exploit their motive bases in order to manipulate followers, according to Burns. He cites FDR as an example of one such leader who appealed directly to their followers’ motivations while power-wielders like Hitler used people for their own gain.
This type of leader works to convince employees that meeting organizational goals is in their own self-interest, creating greater buy-in for agreed-upon objectives. For instance, they might encourage their team to improve response times for customer inquiries so they can meet service standards and expand profit margins.
5. Influence
Transformational leaders aim to promote growth and foster loyalty in their followers by inspiring growth and instilling independence within them. Transformational leaders encourage employees to think for themselves, support innovative problem-solving methods and take risks on behalf of company goals – ultimately leaving employees feeling like part of an organization and appreciated as individuals.
Burns believes that leadership influence extends beyond political arena, and can be found among family, teachers and coworkers. According to him, leadership is a process rather than a quality; not about power but the interaction of motives and values; charisma may play a part in it, but leadership does not depend on charisma as such as its foundational attribute.
He suggests that leadership lies in its ability to inspire its followers. While some individuals can do so naturally, others require training and encouragement for this feat to take place. Overall, however, true leadership occurs when an individual strikes a balance between inspiring his team while completing tasks efficiently and effectively – something which may prove challenging in practice but leads to lower employee turnover rates and increased job satisfaction for all involved. Leaders can facilitate this goal by encouraging their teams to share a vision of success together while rewarding those who make strides towards it.
6. Relationships
Transformational leadership differs from power-oriented approaches by connecting to the needs and values of others rather than forcing their own interests on them. Using this form of leadership provides people with more autonomy and trust while making them feel like co-owners of the organization, leading them towards brand loyalty among followers – think Apple moving beyond selling products to providing customer experiences through stores and branding, or Whole Foods’ focus on community involvement and customer values as examples of transformational leaders at work.
Transformational leadership can be challenging for leaders when their followers are reluctant or incapable of making the necessary changes, but its benefits far outweigh its difficulties. Studies have indicated that transformational leadership leads to higher team goal commitment (Chi et al. 2011) as well as greater congruence between team member goals and those of the organization (Colbert et al. 2008).
This leadership style empowers leaders and followers alike to reach new levels of motivation and moral (within the scope of the leader’s vision) action, leading them to raise each other up towards higher motivation levels and moral (in line with leader vision) action. This powerful connection transforms teams and performances. Consequently, this style serves not only as an effective leadership approach, but also provides a profound philosophy of life.
