Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership involves inspiring and leading the employees in an organization, not just having a title. As Peter Guy Northouse (2010) describes leadership as “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal”, the transformational leadership style helps managers encourage growth and innovation by influencing staff members with vision and intellectual stimulation.

What Is Transformational Leadership?

Transformational leadership is one of the common leadership styles that inspires and encourages employees to attain remarkable results and reach their greatest potential. This leadership supports innovation, strengthens trust, and enhances employee empowerment to increase organizational success.

Transformational leadership goes above and beyond typical management in organizational settings by motivating individuals’ creativity, personal development, and feeling of a shared vision. Transformational leaders can forge a compelling vision, serve as role models, and urge people to put the good of the group or organization ahead of their interests.

Why Is Transformational Leadership Important?

The importance of transformational leadership is in its ability to build constructive change, develop team dynamics, and improve individual and collective creativity. Transformational leadership fosters a dynamic and captivating work environment that encourages adaptability and success by prioritizing values, vision, and followers' well-being, despite organizational problems.

What Is the Theory of Transformational Leadership?

James MacGregor Burns was the first to establish the concept of transformational leadership. Burns was a leadership expert and published the book Leadership in 1978. Transformational leadership is defined in the book as a partnership in which followers and leaders help each other reach “higher levels of morality and motivation”.

In the Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations book written by Bernard M. Bass, the theory of transformational leadership was expanded. Bass aimed to create measures for evaluating transformational leadership and identified characteristics of a transformational leader, such as, models desired traits including justice and integrity, and encouraging innovation in people around them.

What Are the Differences Between Transactional and Transformational Leadership?

To comprehend transformational leadership, it is important to understand “transactional vs transformational leadership”. The main distinction between transformational and transactional leaders is how they aim to accomplish their leadership purposes.

Transactional leadership uses directives and a reward and punishment system to elicit the desired reaction from staff. Instead, a transformational leadership approach encourages desired behaviors by engaging in a team member's motives and values.

Transactional leadership can be appropriate in stable organizations where staff members want an unambiguous hierarchy and consistent goals. However, transformational leadership frequently performs well in organizations going through transition or looking to innovate since it fosters creativity and provides space for criticizing the status quo.

What Are the Advantages of Transformational Leadership?

Implementing transformational leadership in a company brings many advantages. Here are some benefits of transformational leadership style:

1. Enhanced Employee Motivation

Transformational leaders develop a sense of purpose and an inspiring vision to encourage their followers. This strategy increases the level of employee engagement and commitment in the organization which can help to decrease turnover rate.

2. Increased Employee Performance

Transformational leaders give importance to being innovative, using creative skills, and going above and beyond. As a result, this approach generally ensures improving employee performance and productivity. This also shows the great impact of transformational leadership on organizational performance.

3. Successful Talent Development

Transformational leaders concentrate on each team member's personal development in their career path. This approach boosts employees' confidence and motivates them to improve themselves, helping to improve talent management at the same time.

4. High Adaptability

Transformational leaders have two important skills: handling change effectively and leading their teams through transitions with confidence. Their team can adjust to new chances and difficulties more easily, thanks to these abilities.

5. Strong Company Culture

Transformational leaders help to build a strong company culture in which people feel appreciated, supported, and satisfied in the long run. It helps create a productive work environment where there is a culture of giving feedback, sharing ideas, and helping each other.

What Are the Four Elements of Transformational Leadership?

Bernard M. Bass developed the transformational leadership theory and divided it into four essential components, sometimes referred to as the “4 i's of transformational leadership". These four components define transformational leadership while emphasizing the responsibility of the leaders to motivate and mentor their followers. Here are the four elements:

Idealised Influence (II)

This component entails the leader showing strong morals, ethics, and values by acting as an example. The leader's acts and attitude should elicit admiration, respect, and trust from followers.

Inspirational Motivation (IM)

Transformational leaders focus on communicating with their followers. This style of leaders can inspire these people to pursue these objectives with the same fervor and drive.

Intellectual Stimulation (IS)

Transformational leaders inspire their followers to be innovative, creative, and critical thinkers. They encourage problem-solving and question the status quo. These leaders have the ability to foster a continuous learning and advancement culture.

Individualised Consideration (IC)

A leader must acknowledge and respond to each follower's unique needs, abilities, and goals to fulfill this component. Every person can realize their potential with the support of transformational leaders. Leaders establish a helpful and uplifting work environment by cultivating strong interpersonal connections.

What Are the Examples of Transformational Leadership?

To understand transformational leadership more, it is a good idea to learn real-life examples of successful transformational leaders. Here are transformational leadership examples:

• Barack Obama: The previous U.S. President was renowned for his unifying, inspiring, and optimistic communication style as well as his transformational approach to leading his administration.
• Oprah Winfrey: Winfrey's leadership style has a reputation for being motivated, visionary, and charismatic.
• Nelson Mandela: South Africa’s former President is a suitable example since the President was inspiring people authentically.

Conclusion

In this content, you have first learned about the transformational leadership definition, and then other significant points like the significance of transformational leadership, and transactional and transformational leadership.

Although all HR professionals, employers, or anyone who wants to discover HR subjects can read this content, there are also many different HR topics to learn to improve your career. Therefore, it is time to visit Hirex to read plenty of engaging HR content!